How to Deal With Problematic Interactions In the Workplace

People bring to the work environment their personal problems, anger, personality disorders, controlling behaviours, psychological problems, medical issues, addictions, family problems, and criminal and legal issues. These areas of dysfunction can manifest in the work place.

If the list above seems worrisome, think about the fact that some people have co-occurring issues, meaning they have more than one problem with which they are trying to cope. Most people spend about one-third of their day at work, and those eight or so hours can either be productive and pleasant or unbearable.

We will look at a number of difficult personalities, behaviours, and states of mind and then explore options on how you can deal with them in a productive manner, followed by how therapy can help you cope with difficult people in the workplace. I will borrow material from the book Working with Difficult People by Muriel Solomn as well as other business resources…READ ON

I’m Low on Resilience and Scouting for Hope

Yup, I’m low on resilience these days. I’ve been writing about resilience for more than a decade, and how to boost it, but my booster rocket is low on fuel. It’s kind of bobbing in the ocean, waving its arms, saying, “Hello? Ship of good news? I’m over here!”

I woke this morning thinking today’s “June gloom” is a fine time to describe what low resilience looks like. Waking up, here in Southern California, after my irrigation system gave my xeriscape its allotted eight minutes of water. If I don’t keep my hillside (barely) alive, it will slide into my neighbor’s backyard. We’ve recently been placed under water restrictions because our rivers and reservoirs are running low…READ ON