coworker arrogance

I work for a fairly large company. I've come to realize that in a small business, coworkers and managers throughout the company can have a direct effect in your working life. In the enterprise, your team mates and immediate manager effect you most. That said, a person on your team who's personality clashes with yours can be a huge pain. This leads to my question.

How do folks in the TE community generally deal with arrogant colleagues your work closely with? Or colleagues who's technical skill level is sub par, but the manager is blind to their ability?

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Comments

Dieg0M

Are you the only one who feels that way?

403Forbidden

I try and help them become better, pointing out ways I do things and why I do them a specific way over others.. even if the other ways happen to be that co-worker's preferred method I don't call it "Their Method" I say "This is why I do it this way instead of another way."

If after that they still think they are better than they are I let them screw things up on their own but go behind them and set up backdoor solutions that I can implement quickly and easily to clean up their mess.

onesaint

Previously, I've experienced this were the whole team felt the individual was being excessively arrogant. However, I think this situation comes up in most large environments.

paul78

In the workplace, I've encountered individuals who are extremely competent and confidence of their skills. It's often a fine-line when it comes to arrogance and confidence. It's sort of the classic computer prima-donna nerd/geek personality. In these cases, it has never really bothered me and it's an attitude that I try to harness with that individual - either to get them to step-up the work of the entire team or as someone that I can use to learn or elicit a different point-of-view.

But if you are referring to someone with arrogance without the talent, skill, or experience to back it up - those types of people tend not to last very long in the organizations that I've been at.

onesaint

Thanks for the input, all.

@403 I usually try to employ similar tactics to diffuse the situation.

@Paul I've run across that high skilled arrogance often as well and so long as there is ability to back it up, I see no issue with it. That said, the cases where folks can fool management about their ability or are well skilled at listening to coworkers and taking credit for their work, then it's an issue. It's the latter example I'd like to learn how to deal with.

N2IT

I usually turn the other cheek then I'll start to push back. If they are peers and seem impossible to get through to and their attitude won't stop I usually pull them to the side and very facts based set them in their place. I usually follow that up with a very stern do you understand me and repeat my message. That usually takes care of it. I can be VERY authoritative and usually don't have a problem delivering this type of message.

ivx502

I have seen similar handled in one of two ways. One, let the person continually mess up causing damage that takes months to repair. Two, let the person only deal with something unimportant and tell them (Lie) about how important their task is. While the rest of the team picks up that slack.

In situation one which was the situation I came into where a supervisor with no skill was given administrative rights and caused 16 months in damage.

Situation two is where I am at now. To prevent another mess I make sure the employee doesn't do anything at all. It gets me in hot water with the management sometimes, but the end users appreciate it.

UnixGuy

I had one like that in my previous role. I knew that I was leaving that company after sometime, so I kind of ignored him. Management loved him and stuff, but I didn't really care.

paul78

onesaint wrote: »

That said, the cases where folks can fool management about their ability or are well skilled at listening to coworkers and taking credit for their work, then it's an issue. It's the latter example I'd like to learn how to deal with.

Ahh - yes -

-This may be where you need to be a little bit more of a "shameless self-promoter". What you are describing isn't quite arrogance but more of someone being the "brazen plagiariser".

Here's a short take on how to be a shameless self-promoter - Why You Should Be a Shameless Self-Promoter | Inc.com

One thing that I've noticed about IT professionals - self-marketing doesn't always come naturally.

As for how to deal with that type of individual - the next time there's some tough issue or work to be done. If management seeks someone to address it - suggest that the "brazen plagiariser" be the one to try to solve it. And watch if he/she can do it on their own.

Crikey

I worked with a guy who was ex Navy and thought that everyone had to follow his orders or else. Nobody liked him. He was arrogant and condescending. Unfortunately he was in charge of our department, and although he was not my boss, I had to follow his direction.

I made sure I documented everything he did that directly affected me and my responsibilities. In the end I was able to show that he tried to cover up a mistake, lied about it (trying to pin it on me), and eventually he was fired.

onesaint

Thanks everyone for the comments. I gather two ways of dealing with the situation from this. 1. Give the person lots of rope to hang themselves, the sit back and watch. 2. Address the issue with management in some manner and minimize the damage caused by the colleague in question.

@Paul Thanks for the link. Self marketing is a skill I know I'm lacking in and need to work on.

blargoe

paul78 wrote: »

In the workplace, I've encountered individuals who are extremely competent and confidence of their skills. It's often a fine-line when it comes to arrogance and confidence. It's sort of the classic computer prima-donna nerd/geek personality. In these cases, it has never really bothered me and it's an attitude that I try to harness with that individual - either to get them to step-up the work of the entire team or as someone that I can use to learn or elicit a different point-of-view.

But if you are referring to someone with arrogance without the talent, skill, or experience to back it up - those types of people tend not to last very long in the organizations that I've been at.

I have encountered both of these examples of what some would call "arrogance" in my time working in IT.

One case in particuar, looking back, I can see a guy I worked with earlier in my career who really had no ill-intent, but his "bedside manner" left something to be desired at times. Brilliant guy, decades of experience, but tended to be back-handed in his comments and didn't really give very much credit to anyone below a certain age/experience level even when it was due.

I usually ignore the jerks in the other category unless I need something from them or we have to work together on some project. I give these individuals plenty of rope with which to hang themselves, usually in a meeting with about a dozen peers and managers watching.

tpatt100

A coworker at an old job turned me off of becoming better with Checkpoint because he kept "testing" me not to make me better at my job but to prove he was better at firewalls than me.

Well he was good at firewalls, I don't know why he had to prove it to myself and the other firewall admin but his constant "tests" drove us nuts.

I would come on shift and his shift turn over would be "there is a problem with one of the firewalls". I would ask "ok did you document it?". He would reply, "oh you can find it I am sure". I would respond "uh ok? what kind of turn over is this?".

Then he was always "auditing" our network to find crap to complain to management about our team. He took a job offer with another company, a year later tried to come back but when our manager asked us the whole group said "oh hell no!".

jvrlopez

I usually deal with such coworkers by out performing them.

That usually puts them in their place.