5
How to Deal with a Passive-Aggressive Colleague
By Amy Gallo
Your colleague says one thing in a meeting but then does another. He passes you in the hallway without saying hello and talks over you in meetings. But when you ask to speak with him about his behavior, he insists that everything’s fine and the problem is all in your head. But it’s not: He’s being passive-aggressive. Working with someone like this can be so frustrating. Do you address the behavior directly? Or try to ignore it? How can you get to the core issue when your colleague pretends that nothing’s going on?
What the experts say
It’s not uncommon for colleagues to occasionally make passive-aggressive remarks to one another over particularly sensitive issues or when they feel ...
Get Dealing with Difficult People (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
