Work is hard enough, but you know what’s worse than that? It’s very difficult when you have a narcissistic co-worker.
There are different work environments, some more taxing than others. I remember working in a factory about many negative situations. Honestly, it was a nightmare. The same can be said for my co-workers, I had a bit of a hard time being around her.
While most of the people we work with can be fine, for the most part you have a few who can be very difficult, almost impossible to do your job. They complain constantly, are always missing work, are late, and worst of all, are narcissistic.
Narcissistic coworker
Difficult people to work with can deal with their own negative issues, but some of them are actually narcissistic employees. When you work with someone like this, in order to do your job efficiently and keep yourself safe, you must learn how to deal with them.
To be sure you are working with a narcissist, you must first recognize the signs.
How do you know if any of your co-workers are a narcissist?
- They are cuddly at first
Like many other people with personality disorders, a narcissist will seem really nice and helpful at first. They will try to be friendly with everyone and always seem to know facts about the job for new employees – they just seem like really engaging and helpful people.
The truth usually starts to come out when something goes wrong at work. If they know who made the mistake, they will be the first to tell the supervisor about the mistake. If they do something wrong, they will deny blame and shift it elsewhere or to another employee. All of this will be done while trying to make everyone see them as a great person.
- They steal the spotlight
Just like any other narcissist, a narcissistic co-worker will always try to steal the spotlight or be the center of attention. In meetings, conferences, and even projects, this co-worker will try to get the best ideas and answers to all work-related issues.
If someone else tries to take the spotlight, he’ll get angry and stop at nothing to spoil his co-workers’ ideas. They will not do it in an external way, only in a passive way.
- They always have excuses
No matter what they do, a co-worker with narcissistic personality disorder will always have an excuse. If they’re late for work, it’s someone else’s fault, their car broke down, or some other excuse like that.
As far as other people go, they usually take responsibility for their actions and try to fix the problems they caused. There is a vast difference between a normal personality and a narcissist, which makes it easy to recognize the excuses that are made.
- They can’t take criticism easily
You could try criticizing your narcissistic co-worker, but it probably won’t reach through or make any difference. You know, it doesn’t even matter how reasonable the criticism is, or how obvious the problem is, they still see themselves as a perfect person.
It is almost impossible to convince a narcissist to do something wrong because it risks provoking the toxic rage of the narcissist.
- They don’t feel equal to anyone
The narcissist feels superior or inferior to another person. So if your co-worker is a narcissist, they will only act in two ways towards you — bigger or weaker, whichever fits their idea of friendship.
Both actions are designed to get what they want from working with you. It is all manipulation and they will never see themselves as equal to anyone else.
- They will have toxic reactions
A narcissistic co-worker cannot take things that happen at work as normal events. Sometimes things go wrong, and that’s just the case in the workplace. As for the narcissist, it cannot happen. When things don’t go according to schedule or job positions change, they’ll lose it sometimes, even in a child-like tantrum.
Their emotions are not as stable as others, and it is very difficult to hide this fact. It comes off easily especially if they are some of the only employees who don’t get a raise from their appraisal.
Do you work with narcissists?
Although it may not be easy to tell at first, eventually you will start to see some of these signs in your co-workers. Hey, maybe you get lucky and work with some honest and nice individuals, but there is usually one person who shows toxic actions and emotions.
When you identify a coworker with a severe personality disorder, it is best to limit your contact with this person as much as possible. While it may be impossible to get away from it completely because of business partnerships, you can try.
