As you move along your career path you will discover that the majority of your peers are good up-standing individuals.
Like you, they work hard and care about the work they do. Unfortunately, you will also probably run across co-workers who are less than stellar for a variety of reasons.
But the worst you will encounter are the backstabbing co workers.
The backstabbing co-workers are the kind of people who will overtly do things to undermine, embarrass or place you in potentially career-damaging situations.
Clearly, you can’t trust this person to have your best interest in mind, because they are working too hard to promote their own interests. It’s important to know a couple of things about this person:
They are uber-ambitious and have some level of insecurity about themselves.This is a lethal combination of characteristics.
I know it may seem like they are anything but insecure, but if they were merely ambitious and confident about what they were doing, they would feel no need to attack you.
They see that their path to greatness includes taking the competition down a peg or two, which could artificially cause them to look better.
An interesting thing about this type of person is they may not be fully aware of their behavior – many people aren’t.
Despite the causes for the career assassin’s behavior, you need to safeguard yourself. Never trust these backstabbing co workers. Also, do not trust them with any of the following:
Your personal business or opinions of anything, especially things at work, your super ideas, inside information, what to expect from them and how things are going with you professionally, be it projects, bosses input, etc.
What does this mean in terms of your interactions with these backstabbing co workers and your behavior? Here are six great tactics you can use to protect yourself from their maliciousness.
Learn the art of “non-answers.”
On all matters related directly to you, professionally or personally, keep it vague and superficial.
Non-answeing is the act of providing a reply to a question that does not give any physical or concrete information.
The non-answer dances around a subject so well that the end result is a jumble of words that say nothing. Politicians excel at non-answers.
Be astute.
Anything that you rely upon them for always follow up, ask questions and look deeper than you would otherwise. Take advantage of situations and turn them to your advantage.
Be on the defensive.
I know that isn’t fun, but you never know when or where this person is going to strike. If you can stay alert, you may be able to head something off before it becomes an issue.
Document and communicate.
It is hard for a back stabber to “get cha” when you are open and transparent in your communication and updates to all the key stakeholders of your work.
Also, when communicating with them, email-document your requests and correspondence. You will want to retain these communications in the event you need to defend yourself.
Be ready to confront.
This is the area where most people fail. Part of the reason why this person resorts to backstabbing as their growth strategy is because it can work to some degree.
Most people are loath (reluctant) to get into a confrontation with others, especially publicly. The back stabbers count on this.
If you teach them that you won’t allow bad behavior directed at you, they may relent and back down.
Be prepared to take this to the boss.
If your attempts fail, you may need to take this to the boss for a remedy.
By this point, you’ve documented what has transpired; so making a case should be easy enough to do.
You may also need to give the boss a “heads up” that this is taking place to simply raise their awareness.
Keep in mind that back stabbers will seek to garner favor of the boss by busting others and pointing out failures.
Part of your defensive posture should be to assume that this is taking place. Some managers are bright enough to judge matters without the help of the back stabber, but you can’t count on it.
Just to set your expectations correctly, don’t count on the boss to fix this person. They might be able or willing to, but managers are people too and may want to avoid this viper as much as you do.
If you’re lucky you may never encounter backstabbing co workers, but sooner or later most people do.
[related_posts]In order for you to know you have backstabbing co workers, you will probably have to be the recipient of their behavior a few times before you understand what you’re dealing with.
When that realization occurs, you don’t have to just grin and bear it!
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