Most us are lucky enough to get along with our colleagues well enough to pass the day without major incident. Whilst we might not want to spend down time with all of them, most of us have a few good friends at work, and the rest fall into the ‘colleague acquaintance’ bracket. That’s fine and works well for most people.
However, if you have an office neighbour you don’t get along with, it can make those days even longer! If your office tables are relatively close to each other, you might find yourself butting heads and causing conflict. For the sake of productivity and workplace harmony, something needs to be done.
Check out this video for a visual take on conflict resolution in the workplace.
As you can see, it’s not unusual to have slight disagreements and issues with colleagues from time to time, but how you handle it is key. Be the mature one, be the one who rises above it, and if you find you can’t handle it, even after trying to iron things out yourself, there is nothing wrong with having a chat with your line manager. It may be the your office chairs simply need to separated as part of a general move around. That may be enough to solve it!
It may also be that a general office team building day could be a good idea. This helps to forge bonds, and helps people get to know each other. Maybe you simply have the wrong idea about this person, or vice versa.
At the end of the day, it is far better to try and iron things out with this person than it end up as a formal chat around the boardroom table, with managers present.
Have you had any similar experiences in your working life?