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Drama In The Workplace

Writer's picture: Tina Del BuonoTina Del Buono

Occasional drama at work is to be expected as things come up in our life that do affect us at work, but what really matters is how we react to those situations that will determine whether we are a true "Dramatic Co-worker" or not.  Take for example last week I had a very sick puppy, and it was breaking my heart that she was not going to recover and I had to leave work early to have her put down.  All of my co-workers knew how hard it was for me, but I did what had to be done and then the next day did the best I could do at work under the circumstances.  There was no continued drama over the situation, although everyone was very understanding and compassionate about what I was going through.  It has been wonderful knowing that those I work with care about me and understand my grief.  This is not what I would call being a "dramatic co-worker".

Let me step back a few years in time when I hired this nice young woman who seemed to be the right fit for our office team.  Now I was right about her in many aspects, but what I did not know was that she was a true "drama queen" in the office and out.  It did not take too long before we realized that she liked to manipulate us into "helping" her to get things done.  And after a few months she was continually having "crises" that would interfere with her work and unfortunately ours also.  She was a drain factor in the office.

The hard part for us was that when she wasn’t having a crisis, she was a good employee, fun to work with and our patient/clients loved her.  It took several months of documentation to really see what she was all about and how her behavior really affected the office as a whole in a negative way.  Although we did like her, we just could not accept the drama she brought to the workplace and the dysfunction that it made for the office team as a whole.  We eventually had to let her go and our office has been able to function much better since. 

Understanding what  effect "drama co-workers" have on everyone in the office is very important.  Far too many times they are allowed to stay and create such a bad environment that you end up losing the good employees.

The link below has a lot of information about stopping drama at work that I think you will find very beneficial.  We would love to hear your comments on how you handle drama in your workplace, we believe that we can learn so much by what others have experienced in the same situations.

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