CBO: Office Pests

They lurk in offices and suck the energy out
of a workplace.

Although they come in many different shapes and sizes, they often fall into categories such as bullies, slackers and weasels. As a group, you could call them the corporate culture killers. That’s because they undermine an organization’s best values, such as respect, honesty and integrity.

Yet, dealing with them isn’t as simple as showing them the door. These individuals, annoying as they may be, often have redeeming qualities. They can be smart, funny and productive. One might even be a company’s top performer.

But don’t be fooled. Working with such people is annoying and demoralizing. Managing them is a challenge. Trying to change their behaviours is tricky and almost always uncomfortable for everyone involved.

For advice, we turned to New York–based executive coach Debra Condren, author of amBITCHous: Let’s Reclaim Ambition As a Virtue, and Gloria Elliott, a consultant based in Roanoke, Va., who runs a workshop called Working with Very, Very, Very Difficult People.