Badjob asks :
Hi Lucy,
My co-worker is really unkind to me and makes me feel terrible every day. He tells me I’m no good at my job, and I’m a part time bartender to earn a bit of money, this isn’t my profession. I put in a lot of effort and work hard but it’s not good enough. I got drunk and started to shout how much I hated him to my friend at work. He overheard and now I won’t see him for 4 days but when I go to work Friday it will be just me and him so it is unavoidable. What do I do?
Hi there,
Agony Aunts on Female First
Perhaps you could arrange a meeting with your manager for the both of you to talk in their presence and ask for it to be recorded.
It may not have been the best way for him to find out, however now it's out in the open; it might be time to try and deal with it. If you have meeting that is monitored then all three of you can agree on a solution. It's in your manager's interests to make sure the staff and happy and getting along- so if they are good at their job they should be willing to arrange this for you.
Or you could talk to him on your own- however if it's not a formal setting he may decide to simply walk away, resulting in no change.
Either way it sounds like you need to find some common ground here or it will make both of your working lives difficult and have a knock on effect on your productivity. It's important to explore why he is like this with you and let him know the negative impact it's having on you- he might not be aware that it is making you feel this way.
There could be other reasons as to why he singles you out- maybe he is having problems at home and it is filtering down to how he is at work. Perhaps other people feel he is treating them the same. It sounds like you may both need to clear the air in order to work in harmony, by whatever means you see fit- Friday might be the ideal time to talk to him about this and nip it in the bud.
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