Work Cooperatively in an Office Environment
If your co-workers are driving you around the bend with their constant demands and their preferences for doing things their way, it can make work seem like a drag. In order to cope with the demands and the need for getting along together, learning to work cooperatively and to be pleasant regardless of what is thrown your way will help to ease the tension and avoid workplace quarrels.
Steps
- Learn well so that you can avoid making thoughtless mistakes. Your job will be easier if you concentrate on just one task at a time rather than focusing on everything simultaneously, also known as multitasking, which is not conducive to getting work done carefully. Working methodically will help you to get things right and will keep you calm, thereby avoiding making small mistakes that tend to annoy colleagues.
- Speak in a polite tone. Office decorum is about ensuring that everyone gets along and showing politeness and using your manners will help to achieve this. Show acceptance of your boss's decisions; avoid making condescending or sarcastic remarks, as these will hamper your image. If you truly don't like what your boss has suggested, come up with a solution that works better, book an appointment to speak with her or him, and discuss it civilly, offering your alternative politely.
- Be conscientious and diligent in undertaking your work. Crises, last-minute stuff-ups and urgent requests can test many a person's patience. The constant schedule of meetings, conferences, and seminars can all make you fatigued and bored, while the workload may seem never ending. However, don't give up in such situations. Instead, focus on what needs to be done, prioritizing the essential things and learning to let go of the things that don't really matter.
- Be flexible, and accept facts. If you are hesitant to accept change, you will expend a great deal of energy fighting it instead of learning new skills and finding interesting new ways to work. Being unaccepting of change can also cause you to perform poorly in the workplace because you're too obsessed with how things used to be. Everything moves on in time, and it's a privilege to be given the opportunity to try new ways of doing things, especially if they improve your work approaches.
- Be cooperative rather than competitive. People do not like working alongside egotistical co-workers. Being arrogant towards others will create a hostile work environment and only goads others into finding ways to undermine you and to lack respect for you. While it may be true that you're the most clever in the area you're working in, you won't be the most clever in something else, so stay humble and realize that your talents are contributing to the greater good of keeping the workplace running well and ultimately ensuring that it remains successful, so that you have a job to keep going to.
- Steer clear of conflicts. Try to avoid arguments and disputes among co-workers. These might feel justified at the time but they mar the spirit of working together and some disputes can drag on for ages, especially when those involved in them fail to reconcile but continue the backbiting for months and years after the initial argument. If you do experience a conflict, seek to reconcile it amicably, agreeing to disagree or finding a compromise. You can also ask others to mediate, so as to find a successful outcome instead of stewing over it long term.
- Smile as often as possible. Smiling will let others know you are a nice, outgoing person. It also reminds others to smile a lot more too, and encourages them to bring pleasantness and happiness into the work sphere.
