15 Types of Jerks in the Office

We deal with them on a daily basis and can’t escape them. No matter how good the company you work in is there are always a few people who get under your skin and whose behavior is simply unacceptable. The problem is you often can’t ignore them. And while you might try to avoid them they’ll find a way to create a toxic atmosphere. Over my 25 years of experience, I’ve met my share off office jerks. Over the next few weeks I’d like to share with you how I spotted them and suggest how you can deal with them.

But first let me give you my list of the different type of Jerks that are toxifying the workplaces in Asia:

#1 The ‘I’m Always Right’ Jerk is arrogant, aggressive, egoistic and has a general its-my-way-or-the-highway, attitude
#2 The Sexist Jerk is aggressive, discriminatory and harasses people
#3 The Complain Jerk is pessimistic, tries to find faults in everything and always blames something or somebody else
#4 The Tattle Tale Jerk is generally untrustworthy, flaky, overly friendly and sneaky
#5 The Two Faced Jerk is nice and positive to you but complains about you to someone else, is fake a hypocrite, discredits others and often jealous
#6 The Political Jerk only focuses on their own personal agenda, is manipulative, conniving and understands the organizational dynamic and power plays
#7 The Kiss A** Jerk praises you ‘into the grave’ is driving personal agenda and more often than not doubtful about their own competence
incompetent
#8 The Self Centered Jerk is defensive, egoistic with little or no regards for others, displays no empathy and is generally selfish
#9 The Look-Busy-Do-Nothing Jerk is a typical loafer, pretends to be all engrossed but never delivering anything, waste times and resources and doesn’t do anything
#10 The Fanatic Jerk is very judgmental, constantly shares and sometimes even forces his / her ‘out-of-the-center’ ideas on others.
#11 The Perfectionist Jerk can’t get his work done in time, is absorbed by details and is nitpicking your work, never satisfied and imposes his need for perfection on others
#12 The Credit Stealing Jerk always claims paternity for the results/ideas, brags, lies, take advantage of others and is needy for recognition
#13 The Feels Sorry For Himself Jerk is self deprecating, insecure and lacks confidence
#14 The Overachieving Jerk does more than is expected of them, making others look bad by doing so; even if others help them out they will find something else to make them look super busy
#15 The Victim Jerk always blames others for his inability to get work done, progress in his career or the situation that he is in.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share my suggestions on how you, as a colleague or if you’re lucky enough to have one of these jerks as a direct report, should deal with them. In the meantime there are three simple steps that you can now do to start getting rid of your Jerks in the office:

1. Take Action
“They’re not going to go away,” says Ken Lloyd, the author of a couple of books on office idiots. So its is all about not letting them get away with their jerk behavior. However, there’s no point in creating a huge confrontation. It’s about being able to address the behavior and outcomes (if you want to suggestions on how to deal with difficult conversations, check out Kerry Patterson in Crucial Conversations).

2. Stay away from it
Without revealing it, many people actually enable office jerks and politics. Whether we like it or not we often contribute to the office water cooler gossip and react to other people behavior by talking to colleagues about it. Don’t stay away from it. Jerks love the attention they are getting.

3. Look in the Mirror
Reflect and look at your own actions and the response from others. Make sure that some of your own behavior is not infuriating your colleagues. Ask yourself how am I treating my co-workers, would they have any reason to typify me as an office jerk.

Speak to you next week on How to Deal with Jerks. Make sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss out on any part of this series.

photo credit: MattysFlicks via photopin cc