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carter , dont even bother we have a neighbour here and he is the most grumpy old git in the world , i made up my mind right i'm fed up with your moods , and made a point of talking to him just joking and being funny eventually he came round a bit , he started to join in and enjoyed having a joke , do you know what i wished i'd never bothered i have to sneak out to get in my van , if he see's me he talks my poor head off , i really made a rod for my own back , for i'm the only mug the grumpy old git has to talk too :-5 :-5

helefra;547294 wrote: I can usually get along with many people but I have to cover someone who is on maternity leave and the colleague at work is very miserable and moany. I tried to be pleasant but instead all I get is a "Oh I told you that before" or "Thank you for that . . . . . (moan moan)". However, it is not as though she is complaining about something, it feels as though she is moaning at me as though it is my fault :-5

I had another work colleague who was also very difficult to get on with, she had a mood that would swing in various directions which made it difficult to know what to expect from one moment to the next.

As said previously, I have tried to be nice to this person but she is still the same. I'm hoping that if I maintain a sympathetic look, someone will probably notice something is wrong.

Has anyone ever had a difficult work colleague, apart from the boss?


Does a difficult partner count?:D

Seriously, would it be possible to pop out of the office and maybe go to lunch together and have a little chat, you may find she is totally different out of the office invoirment. Then you could just slip it in what an old bag she is, in the nicest possible way of course

helefra;547294 wrote: I can usually get along with many people but I have to cover someone who is on maternity leave and the colleague at work is very miserable and moany. I tried to be pleasant but instead all I get is a "Oh I told you that before" or "Thank you for that . . . . . (moan moan)". However, it is not as though she is complaining about something, it feels as though she is moaning at me as though it is my fault :-5

I had another work colleague who was also very difficult to get on with, she had a mood that would swing in various directions which made it difficult to know what to expect from one moment to the next.

As said previously, I have tried to be nice to this person but she is still the same. I'm hoping that if I maintain a sympathetic look, someone will probably notice something is wrong.

Has anyone ever had a difficult work colleague, apart from the boss?


yes, I've had this in the past with a co-ordinator I had to work with.

In the end I had a meeting with her when I told her that her negative comments were not only inappropriate, but that it was having a negative effect on my mood. I said that I would appreciate it if she could make more of an effort to be more positive about her role and collegues.

She's improved

helefra;547307 wrote: Good handling with your colleague El, I think I may have to resort to threats with mine. Perhaps I will try sitting her on a nuclear weapon and tell her to change or else.


Seriously, some people are just born complainers, and will remain so as long as you let them. They don't realise that it has a serious effect on you.



If you have a manager you can talk to, I would recommend that you speak to your manager and say that you are having problems with this person, that you don't want to escalate it, and that you will have a go at resolving yourself. That way, if she takes umbridge at your words, your manager will already have had the heads up about it.

helefra;547319 wrote: Thanks for that bit of advice, El. I have considered the person who oversees everything but as I have been covering for over a week, I thought I would wait and see. I am planning on doing something about it if nothing changes by the end of this week, I just want to see if anything will change.

I have made notes of when and how these incidents occur so I'm well prepared.


Good for you.

If you want any further information/ advice on this subject drop me a PM.

Is she just missing her mate who is on maternity leave? Maybe she just doesn't realise how she's treating you. I'd be inclined to ask her directly what her problem is, in a very nice non-confrontational way of course!

helefra;547294 wrote: I can usually get along with many people but I have to cover someone who is on maternity leave and the colleague at work is very miserable and moany. I tried to be pleasant but instead all I get is a "Oh I told you that before" or "Thank you for that . . . . . (moan moan)". However, it is not as though she is complaining about something, it feels as though she is moaning at me as though it is my fault :-5

I had another work colleague who was also very difficult to get on with, she had a mood that would swing in various directions which made it difficult to know what to expect from one moment to the next.

As said previously, I have tried to be nice to this person but she is still the same. I'm hoping that if I maintain a sympathetic look, someone will probably notice something is wrong.

Has anyone ever had a difficult work colleague, apart from the boss? I'm pretty quiet and mild-mannered by anyones standards and, as at school, I have been bullied in the workplace by a couple of senior individuals who have both left fortunately. One guy was an original owner of the company who gave me a torrid time even though I was the highest member of staff below the owners...yeah..how to motivate key employees :rolleyes: . Another was a Director who I reported to directly. He was so pedantic and nit-picked at everything. He would have a fit if any text on a drawing was more than 3mm in height. He would make me move notes on a drawing everso slightly to keep in control. One time I was without my car for a week so I was going in early on the train and leaving early. He was at a meeting in London with my boss when I first left early. He gave me a right bollocking the next day for not phoning and interrupting his meeting to tell him that I was leaving half an hour early. As per usual I just took his onslaught without a word or emotion expressed, but at home on the night the more I thought about it the more it wound me up and it was the result of a culmination of incidents that pushed me to the edge. In an almost out-of-body experience, I marched into his office the next morning with a wild and belligerent look upon my face, slammed his door, pointed my finger then told him to sit down and fcuking listen. He looked like a deer in the headlights as I leaned right over his desk shouting at him like a man possessed. I told him he'd better get used to the idea that I was in my 40's and not 14 and he could forget about me phoning him up to fill him in on chicken-sh1t trivia regarding my working hours. I pointed out that as I had done thousands of unpaid hours overtime, my work ethic was beyond reproach. I stated that where I was man enough to show him the respect his knowledge and ability commanded, he was rude and insulting to me. I told him that he had better show me some respect. He was wriggling and squirming in the time-honoured fashion of a confronted bully assuring me that he wouldn't treat me like a school leaver again. When he agreed to all my demands and apologised profusely, I backed off to allow him a modicum of dignity. This temporary power-shift made me feel pretty good and he backed off for a long time until I had to give him another gentle reminder. I think people who rant and rave all the time are generally ignored as it's the norm, but when the silent types go nuclear sub-particle, everyone sits up and listens. Even my boss confided in me that he really was that word that ladies don't like.

well said kram, i hardly ever lose my cool but when i lose it i really lose it:D



when you do confront a bully nine times outa ten they bottle it , and if they dont they dont usually pick on you again

I had my dream job many years ago now working for a high established business woman and her daughter in a London office .

I was very young at the time and this was my very first job I couldn't believe my luck that I had landed such an opportunity to work in such a well known establishment , but it all started to go wrong a couple of months down the line .

My boss at the time had a very important meeting with a client and I was asked to go in to her office so she could make a coffee order for her and the client , I was to go to Pret a manger to get the coffee and that was suppose to be that!

She didn't instruct anything else but to get the coffee .

When I got back I gave her and her client the coffee " job done I thought "

oh how I was so wrong the next thing I knew her face was redder the any shade of red I have ever seen she got up from her seat and began to walk towards me like some bad temped giant she seemed to get bigger in size as she was getting nearer and nearer towards me I remember looking up and she starts shouting at me and spitting at the same time Shouting how dare you serve me and my client coffee in this manner I just didn't understand what I had done so wrong Her client was looking really embarrassed for me and had said to her there was no problem with the coffee but she wasn't listening to him .

It turned out that I was suppose to poure the coffee from the Pret a Manger cup to a china cup before giving it to her and her client , anyway I ended up leaving that job as she really scared me .

helefra;557812 wrote: Bloody hell - I think I would have walked out of the office just to calm down.


If only I could have done that , I just stood there holding back any emotion when she had finished shouting I went to the toilet to have a good cry . :-1

CrazyCruizChick;557658 wrote: I had my dream job many years ago now working for a high established business woman and her daughter in a London office .

I was very young at the time and this was my very first job I couldn't believe my luck that I had landed such an opportunity to work in such a well known establishment , but it all started to go wrong a couple of months down the line .

My boss at the time had a very important meeting with a client and I was asked to go in to her office so she could make a coffee order for her and the client , I was to go to Pret a manger to get the coffee and that was suppose to be that!

She didn't instruct anything else but to get the coffee .

When I got back I gave her and her client the coffee " job gone I thought "

oh how I was so wrong the next thing I knew her face was redder the any shade of red I have ever seen she got up from her seat and began to walk towards me like some bad temped giant she seemed to get bigger in size as she was getting nearer and nearer towards me I remember looking up and she starts shouting at me and spitting at the same time Shouting how dare you serve me and my client coffee in this manner I just didn't understand what I had done so wrong Her client was looking really embarrassed for me and had said to her there was no problem with the coffee but she wasn't listening to him .

It turned out that I was suppose to poure the coffee from the Pret a Manger cup to a china cup before giving it to her and her client , anyway I ended up leaving that job as she really scared me .
I think I'd have invited her to kiss my chocolate starfish.

There will always be colleagues at work that just love to make us miserable, or who don't even know they are. Some people just don't have good attitudes. I work with a woman who, every morning, says, "I just don't want to be here, blah blah blah." It's annoying because it tends to bring my morale down too. But I realize that some want to have a pity party and misery loves company. So I ignore her and try not to feed the fire and get on with my work.

If I had to work with someone who was constantly moody and it was making my job hard to do, I would go to the supervisor. If her attitude it making it difficult to work around her, the boss should know since that would make others work inefficiently. I'd state it to him/her matter-of-factly, without getting emotional or throwing insults. If nothing changes, I'd go to the colleague and simply tell her that her rampaging negativity wasn't helping anyone and I'd rather not hear it. Then ignore her or change the subject when she goes on and on again.

There are always options to dealing with people like that.