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80% of office workers hate the same person

The workplace can be a stressful place.

The job aside, there’s the whole political game going on, where everybody is jockeying to be in the next position available for career advancement.  Yeah, it may be a jungle out there, but the office jungle can be a pretty rough place too.

Some get in trouble for not speaking up enough; others get in trouble for speaking up too much.  How do you find the balance between the two?

Crucial Conversations
Crucial Conversations

See, here’s the thing:

According to the book CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS, 25% of workers have to work 10% or more hours over a week due to the incompetance of their local office slacker.

That’s right. That guy who doesn’t pull their own weight.  That guy who’s always just hanging out in the breakroom, slack-jawed watching the communal television under the guise of “oh, I’m just making a fresh pot of coffee”.  That guy who everybody wonders how they’re still employed, or wonders what they actually do during the day besides play Minesweeper or troll Facebook or Tumblr posts for hours on end.

Having to work an extra 4 or 6 hours per week just to make up for that guy is enough to piss anyone off… but the real question is how do you deal with it?  Do you say something to them directly?

Likely not.

To their boss?  Or to HR?

Perhaps – depending on how big of a stink you want to raise.

If you believe Joseph Grenny, it’s mainly because people just don’t want to put themselves into a situation that could potentially get them into a bit of hot water themselves.  Frankly, people are scared of getting involved or speaking their mind.

But sometimes it is worthwhile to have that confrontation — and only 10% of those in the office tend to do so.

Remember that 80% we mentioned earlier?  While 25% of workers are the ones doing those extra hours of work caused by Joe Slacker over in the Slack Department, a full 80% of workers say that their own work quality declines due to issues that Mr Slackology has going on.

That office slacker may be trying to take the easy way out, but they really end up affecting the entire office space.  And that’s a real problem.