Thursday, September 03, 2009

What I'm Hearing...Complaining about Co-Workers

This morning I heard that CareerBuilder recently released the results of a survey about interacting with co-workers. Their latest findings suggest that complaining about your co-workers - why is he always on Facebook?, why does she get more vacation time than me? - is a sure fire way to fall out of favor with your boss.

Intuitively, this makes sense. Few people like a whiner or a tattler.

Of course, if the person is commenting on something involving personal safety, the organization's financial well-being, etc., then bring on the commentary. Otherwise, most likely the person on the receiving end of things doesn't want to hear it.

Instead of being pulled down into office discussions, wouldn't a better route be to outshine that co-worker and make your supervisor notice you for the great things you do, rather than the squeaky wheel effect? I'm wondering why someone would opt for the latter approach - baggage from childhood? Insecurity in the job? Something else?

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. I'm sure that at some point we've all worked with someone who frustrated us.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Stat Counter