Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

The third type of problematic coworker is the mild annoyance. When it comes down to it, this person
isn’t going to ruin your day, but they are mildly annoying on a routine basis. Maybe it’s a coworker who
wants to come in every morning and talk to you about what they watched on television the night before
while you’re trying to catch up on email. Or maybe it’s the coworker who plays music a little too loudly
in the workplace. There are all kinds of things that can annoy us as human beings, so the mildly annoying
coworker is one that generally is tolerated.
The Independent Self-Promoter
Fourth, we have the independent self-promoter. The independent self-promoter is someone who likes
to toot their own horn at work. This individual tends to be slightly to extremely narcissistic, thinking the
world revolves around them. These individuals are not the type to take credit for other people’s work,
but they also aren’t the type to do work that needs to be done unless they see its utility in making them
look good.
The Pushy Playboy or Playgirl
The fifth problematic coworker is the pushy playboy or playgirl. The pushy playboy or playgirl is an
individual marked by their tendency to push other coworkers into doing things for the pushy playboy or
playgirl. Often these tasks have nothing to do with work at all. For example, the pushy playboy or playgirl
would be the type of person to demand that a younger or more submissive coworker run down the street
for a Starbucks run. Furthermore, these are the types of people who tend to be overly demanding of
coworkers and then misrepresent their performance to those higher up in the corporate food chain.
The Independent Other
The sixth common problematic coworker is the independent other. In many ways, the independent
other is similar to the different bosses discussed earlier. These people tend to be perceived as uniquely
different from their coworkers. There are a lot of characteristics that can make someone viewed as
uniquely other. Any specific demographic that goes against the workplace norm could be cause for
perceiving someone as different: age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, etc. Some
people may view them as having a low work ethic, but this perception may stem out of that perceived
“otherness.”
The Soap Opera Star
The seventh common problematic coworker identified by Harden Fritz is the soap opera star. 72 The
soap opera star lives for drama in the workplace. New rumors of office romances? This person will have
the 411 and probably a Tumblr page devoted to the couple. For this reason, this person tends to be a
busybody to the nth degree and will be all up in everyone’s business both at work and in their personal
lives. Because of their tendency towards drama (both finding it and often creating it), they are generally
seen as highly distracting by their peers. At the same time, they tend to spend so much time digging for
office gossip that they are typically perceived as having a poor work ethic by others.
The Abrasive, Incompetent Harasser
The final type of problematic coworker is the abrasive, incompetent harasser, which is an individual who
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