How to Work with Jerks

There was a woman at a company I worked at, and she was our sales person. We worked in cubes at the time, and the phones were NOT cell phones. The handle that you spoke into was tethered to the base by a cord. I know, weird right! This sales woman had a long phone cord, and so she would walk the aisles in between the cubes making her sales calls. She was loud and obnoxious.

One night , a group of us from the office were hanging out at happy hour, and we had an intern with us. I knew that interns would do pretty much anything for a free beer, since they're hardly getting paid at all. So after I had a few beers, I offered a couple of free beers to him if he would sneak into the office that night and replace her long phone cord with a short one. And he did it! The next day, the woman got the message loud and clear!

This week I'm talking about how to work with annoying people, and my tip today is to do the opposite of what we did back then . . .instead be direct. The intern thing was funny, and it got our message across, but it wasn't nice. Set up a time to be direct with the person about what about their behavior is bothering you because they may not be aware of it. And make sure you stick to the one or two things that are the issue. Don't dump on them about everything. Of course, if that doesn't work, hire an intern . . .joking!

If you want to see me in action as the Master of Ceremonies for corporate events, go to my website www.ComedyEmcee.com

That's it for today. Take care and enjoy your journey.