Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Your Co-worker Is A Jerk

Last week I had writers block and I asked the people who follow me on Twitter to help with some questions about networking, marketing, sales, career development, etc....

Wow, I got a bunch of responses, so now I have plenty of topics.

The first question is below. As I write these posts over the next week I am not going to site the persons who asked the questions, as some many not want their identity exposed (a few came by direct message with a request not to use their name):

"How do you respond when networking and people talk about how your colleague / superior is such a jerk? Umm?

5 comments:

kate loving shenk said...

Excellent point and well taken.

The other night I was with a group who was bad mouthing a co-worker-and one said, "Oh Oh and I made a vow to stop gossiping about people," and I said, "Then Do IT!!" and continued on minding my own business.

The good news?

Subject was changed!!

Anonymous said...

This is a great post, and a wonderful reminder of the age old advice from Mom's everywhere. :-)

Keep up the great work!

Dr. Rus

Unknown said...

One time I was interviewing a PR CONSULTANT (!!) for a client, and the PR guy said, "What's the deal with [client]? Isn't he kind of squirrely?"

Uh. What?

Nice job, PR GUY!!! That was 8 years ago and I have never forgotten it. And yes, I did tell my client, who was my friend, and we just laughed. He and I would both admit that he is, at times, a bit squirrely.

Kim Haynes Hollenshead said...

Great post, Thom. I couldn't agree more. It does the person little harm, but does your reputation plenty of harm. Same goes when interviewing. Figure out how to say something nice.

Kim Haynes
Recruting Specialist
Kershner Trading Group
www.kershnertrading.com
khaynes(at)kershnertrading(dot)com

Anonymous said...

And imagine the far more influential act of having someone report back to your friend that you said something absolutely positive about them!