Work Place Advice: 5 Tips Of Dealing With Backstabbing Co- Workers

By Jane Okoth,

“I was recently promoted in my current job from a Business Development Officer to  Head of Sales. My promotion is not going well with my colleagues who have since been making my life miserable at work. They go as far as making up stories and badmouthing me to the boss. Some of them tend to think that my promotion was done on bad faith and discrimination. Kindly advice me on how to deal with such colleagues,” writes Esther Ayugi in an email.

As much as it is hard to accept, there are some people at work that may pose as a threat to your career advancement.

These are colleagues who have a habit of undermining you and putting you in career damaging situations.

Karen Salmansohn, a Career Advise Author warns against being emotional in the workplace rather than being professional.

“For starters, Backstabbers often try to gather personal secrets and controversial professional views to attack you with. The less emotional and talkative you are, the safer you will be,” she says.

Secondly she is of the opinion that being nice can get you more allies for defensive purposes.

“Even if you are going to confront them, do it in calm and composed way by approach that colleague and tell him or her in a professional and calm way,” she advises.

She further suggests that “A good example is to say something like; i know you have done this and could you explain to me why because I cannot understand.”

She opines that it is important to know how to manage between self defense and becoming paranoid.

Here she calls for the need to settle down and know your top priorities as well as your problems.

Which direction is advisable to take? Should you confront them or just ignore them?

“Thirdly when dealing with backstabbing colleagues by communicating with them about being aware of the gossip,” says Gloria Campbell, a Career planner at Gloria Dixon Management.

She adds that “when communicating with them, email-document your requests and correspondence. This is because you will want to retain these communications in the event you need to defend yourself.”

She affirms that if someone stabs you in the back; let them know that you know.

Ms Campbell is of the opinion that there will always be people at work who will try to make themselves look good at your expense.

“How you deal with them will largely help to determine how well you are at the job and how far you have progressed,” she suggests.

Fourthly, make sure that you have friends who are above and below your rank at work.

“Most people tend to look down upon people who have a lower rank in the workplace but what they do not understand is that people we consider insignificant in the workplace may have the most information,” she elaborates.

Lastly, Dorothy Tannahill-Moran, a certified Career Coach at Career Rocketeer says that the aggrieved worker should be prepared to report to the boss.

“Such a matter cannot be handled lightly because it will have an effect on your performance at work,” she says.

She also concludes by saying “keep in mind that backstabbers will always want to get noticed or seek favors of the boss by trying to make you a failure.”

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