Your job may be as perfect as humanly possible, but it’s a fact of life that every office has one crazy person. Quirky and strange is one thing, but way on the other end of the spectrum, you have the psychopath. This person is highly dangerous when it comes to your career and your quality of life. Short of quitting and finding a better environment, there are a few things you can do to make the most of the situation so you can still do what you love.
- Know that nothing will make them happy. If this insane person is your boss, good luck. Seriously. Nothing will ever be good enough, even if you follow their every instruction and guideline. They’ll just ask why you did it that way and make you re-do it. If it’s a colleague, they’ll find a way to complain about everything you do, and likely blame you for everything you didn’t do, as well.
- Don’t expect them to solve problems. A true hallmark of a crazy person is that they whine about something that sucks, but when you suggest changing something to make it better, they won’t listen and they won’t do it. They basically love being annoyed and upset because then they can talk about it to death.
- If you want to keep your job, listen to their demands. It’s not uncommon to check your email on a Sunday evening after a fun, peaceful weekend and find a demanding message from this psycho. No matter how much you don’t want to reply and would rather wait until the following morning, you have to answer if you want to keep your job.
- But don’t expect it to matter. You could walk into the office Monday morning and they have no recollection of even sending you that email, or they brush it off and say it’s not important. So basically, you have to be perfect and do what they ask while knowing it could mean nothing at the same time.
- Accept that every single thing they say is illogical. You can’t make sense of crazy, because crazy just doesn’t make sense. Prepare to be exhausted all the time.
- Know that they play favorites. And those coworkers of yours who are beloved might not be all that talented, loyal to the company or otherwise deserving of praise. That’s just the way the confusing cookie crumbles when you’re at work with a crazy person.
- Don’t chat with your coworkers about it. This is a straight-up bad situation – it’s not a good idea to gossip with those you work with. It’s toxic and will only make you feel worse, and it’ll backfire when the person gets wind of what you’re saying – and they definitely will. Offices are like small towns – gossip flies super fast.
- Sometimes the only way to deal is to get out now. There’s only so much you can do in this kind of scenario. Sometimes it’s best to cut your losses and find a new job. It might be an even more painful breakup than a romantic one if you truly loved your job. At least you’ll have some (hopefully) funny stories to tell your BFFs – it’s only with some distance that we can even see the humor in a work situation that looks more like The Devil Wears Prada than Working Girl.
