| Watch
Out for The Office Vampires
These are people who sap your energy
and resources - the lifeblood of the
workplace - and you need to keep them at bay.
By Daniel Theyagu
VAMPIRES are the mythological Undead - blood-sucking
creatures of the
night to be feared and avoided at all costs. The belief
was that if a vampire bit
you, you would eventually turn into one yourself.
In the corporate world, you can come across a few
types of vampire as well.
Office vampires do not literally suck your blood, but
they do gain sustenance in
seeing you suffer by making you feel inept, irresponsible,
frustrated and
emotionally bankrupt because of their actions or inactions.
Happily, there is some effective protection from these
nasty colleagues. But
first it is important to identify them. Office vampires
can be classified into
three categories:
Resource vampires
These are the ones who are always complaining about
the lack of resources.
They are always short of stationery, staff and equipment.
They will borrow
your stuff, but not return it. You will be made to feel
petty when you attempt to
recover your property from them.
Resource vampires feel that taking office stationery
home or using the office
phone to make lengthy personal phone calls is part of
their job description.
The cure: Make the resource vampires account for what
they use. When asking
them back for what is yours, specify the time and date
when they borrowed
your stuff, underlining how long it has taken them to
return it.
Also, if you have to lend them something, ask them
to sign for it, making the
transaction as official as possible. You may also include
a column to specify
when your items should be returned. The best way to
deal with resource
vampires is to be firm with them.
Time vampires
This is a deadlier breed than the former. Typically,
time vampires exhibit the
following behaviour. When they make an appointment,
they do not turn up.
They are perpetually late for meetings and other office
functions. It is easy to
spot them from the excuses they give, which include,
"The bus was late…"; "It
was raining and I had no umbrella…";
"The alarm clock did not ring…"
and
"I've got a lot on my mind…"
You may manage your time efficiently, but the time
vampires sap your energy
by turning up late and disrupting your schedule.
The cure: Make it very clear that you have zero-tolerance
for time vampires.
If possible, leave a time vampire out of a certain event
if he turns up late - just to
prove a point that you mean business. If this option
is not possible, you might
have to give them an earlier deadline to finish something.
If you are a manager, it is very important that you
deal with time vampires for
the general morale of your department. Time vampires'
behaviour can be
extremely infectious - there is a tendency for others
to become like them when
it becomes an accepted part of the office culture to
be late.
Emotional vampires
This type of vampire is the deadliest of all. They
may seem harmless, but they
can wreak havoc on your self-confidence. This is how
you can spot them.
During meetings and discussions, they are the ones who
love to play the 'devil's
advocate'. For every idea that you come up with, they
have a negative opinion
about it.
When you engage in any new activity, they will enjoy
telling you how you
might fail instead of looking at your strengths and
encouraging you to succeed.
Emotional vampires may be good friends when you need
their assistance, but
after that they relish the prospect of living in the
past and telling you how they
helped you when you needed them. Sometimes you wish
that you never asked
them to help you!
The cure: There is no effective treatment to deal
with emotional vampires.
Their existence is most likely based on their attitude
towards life in general.
The best course you can take is prevention: Stay away
from them wherever
possible, or you will find yourself engulfed by their
negativity.
If it is not possible to avoid them, then you should
arm yourself with a strong
vision of who you really are and what you are capable
of. This is to ensure that
if you do get an emotional vampire on your back, you
can fight him off and
walk away with your self-esteem intact.
About the author:
Daniel Theyagu is a keynote speaker and seminar leader
for conferences and training
programmes. He runs Lateral Solutions Consultancy which
designs and conducts
competency-based training for organizations He is also
an adjunct lecturer with
Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)
.
For seminars and workshop enquiries:
E-mail: dtheyagu@singnet.com.sg; website: www.thinklaterally.com.
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