More and more difficult

Have you ever breathed a huge sigh of relief when a colleague of yours was sacked? I'm ashamed to say that I have.

The sigh of relief came because a team of business teachers, which included me, felt our new colleague was difficult. He broke the rules – both official (He didn't stick to the deadlines or the teaching plan.) and unofficial ones (He asked too many personal questions, didn't respect other people's personal space, was arrogant in his behaviour, and he never once offered to make us the coffee!). We were relieved when we were told he had to clear his desk.

Why do I feel ashamed? The feeling of shame came later as I realized that maybe we'd reacted too quickly and too negatively to new blood. The reasons we didn't get on with him were mainly personal. (On the whole, he did do his job – just a little slower than the rest of us.) Having read Bob Dignen's article "Behaving badly" (Business Spotlight 5/2007), I can see that we didn't try hard enough.

The team didn't get any further than a "spontaneous reaction" to the new colleague. We didn't get to stage two, which involves a "broader analysis" of a person's behaviour, or even anywhere near stage three, which would have looked at an "effective strategy" to deal with the new guy's behaviour based on the broader analysis, not on our spontaneous reaction. It would also have involved looking at how we were reacting to him, not just at his behaviour. Maybe we said the wrong things. 

Perhaps we can help you to avoid making the same mistakes. Decide what to say to six difficult colleagues.

Deborah Capras