Pursuing professional success in a non-friendly environment
Not every workplace is a friendly workplace. That doesn’t necessary make success there impossible.
Your career is thriving – you transferred to a bigger company on a better position and this is great. But what happens if you find that your new colleagues are not so happy to meet you and work with you? You can’t just give up and start searching for a new position somewhere else. There are different successful tactics that will help you manage this situation the best way possible.
Working with people who don’t like you is really hard but it shouldn’t put a pause on your career and success. There is always a working strategy that you could use and make things better. All you need to do is identify the source of problems, understand the problem and act on it. Sound easy, right?
Why we meet hostility at the workplace is dependent on a lot of factors. Most commonly we can say they are inner and outer in regarding to you. This invokes the need of two different strategies that you might need to use. Make sure you have identified the right one.
Internal – These are the factors that find their root in you. I’ve met a lot of them . It doesn’t matter what the situation is – you have the power to choose your experience. You need to address it properly. Hold a meeting and explain to your team how you work – don’t make them feel intimidated, share which part of you, be vulnerable and ask them to be open-minded. Educate them about how you manage, what are your expectations and your goals and first of all LISTEN and learn to know them. You want to create a constructive and positive work environment. It might make you feel like the weak person in the interaction, but it is not about you – it is about them embracing the change and more open to future communication. It can be really hard to address the internal factors in a new hostile workplace, but it is also really important. And to be honest – you have a better chance of changing the situation around if you set strong foundations and an effective communication process at the first place.
External factors – Here I would include all the problems that make it irrelevant if it were you or someone else in this position. Maybe the team is used to having managers who change frequently, maybe they don’t want to lose the big level of independence? Or someone from the company who they know better and like was trying to get this position but you were offered it instead. Let’s not forget that there are also people who will hate you no matter what and just try to sabotage every step you take in the company – probably because they are not confident in their capabilities. Based on the problem you will need a fitting solution. Sometimes a simple chat with the colleague might help, sometimes it just never goes away. But whatever the problem – don’t forget your integrity. When hostility is based on factors that don’t depend on you, treat them as any other distraction – be aware of them, evaluate them and face them appropriately.
Finally, don’t forget that your personal comfort is more important than anything else. We spend way too many hours a day at the office for them to be miserable. If you feel like you are not capable to change how your colleagues perceive you, start looking for a change – be it a company or a career change.
