Managing someone you dislike

[Polmuggle]

I have a staff member who I get on with perfectly well in terms of small talk, but something about him makes me deeply uneasy.

He's bad at his job, rude and arrogant so I'm having to work extra close with him to improve performance, but it really effects me. Even when he sends perfectly reasonable emails or IM messages I want to avoid opening them.

Has anyone else dealt with this?

Tricky one, maybe ask directly if he has any particular issues he wants to discuss with you.

You might want to discuss this in confidence with someone you trust (not your manager or someone who reports to you) to ask their advice.

It is hard to work with people like this but ultimately it's your job to nurture a good working relationship.

Is their arrogance just general or does he think he's actually really good at his job etc?
Forget anything that's his genuine personality and focus solely on work issues.

Both arrogance in general and he thinks he's great at his job, despite being on a performance plan. But I've managed under-performers before and always managed to get through to them so they're at least trying and their attitude improves.

He just makes me feel like I'm being unreasonable, and tries hard to make me feel stupid (trying to catch me out, being patronising etc) and it's wearing me down. I'm hoping we're getting to the end as I don't stand for it and so he'll be out of a job soon if it doesn't get better, but it's making me hate a job I otherwise love.