Working with someone who drives you crazy.

[Ihopeyourcakeisshit]

I work for a charity, largely me and another person 4/5 days a week. She is fairly new but has certainly found her feet.
I am supposed to have some seniority but she just bulldozes everything. She's very forceful and opinionated, I do quite a bit on my own time and get constantly criticised that I'm being taken advantage of..I should be paid for that, I've not had my full break allocation etc. It's like working with Arthur Scargill. We recently got a Saturday girl, this woman has criticised her size, the amount of time she spends in the toilet, how many cups of tea she has. There's other stuff but I don't know how much of it is just a personality clash?
I don't even want to go into work most days now.
How do you work with someone you don't really like it or so you just leave?

*do you just leave that should read.

She does sound annoying, but she's right about you taking your allocated breaks and not working in your own time!

I don't mind, it can be a bit chaotic so it makes things easier for me to put the odd 20 mins extra here and there.

Keep your distance, be polite but don’t talk to her more then necessary.
Politely tell her off when she’s overstepping, complain to your manager or HR if she keeps doing it.
And don’t worry too much, she sounds like a nightmare that will soon have everyone annoyed about her behavior, including those in higher positions and then the problem will solve itself.

I can't keep my distance, it's me and her most of the time in a very small area
Head Office visits are fairly fleeting so nobody else really notices.

Anyone else?

Tell her to pack it in. You don't have to just sit there like a lemon and take her nonsense.

askamanager.org
this site has lots of good advice re annoying coworkers.
It boils down to, tell her straight firmly but politely to back off

I had similar op only it was a trainee that was dumped on me to train in the office over the pandemic. She didn't listen, was cocky, went rogue, I could go on I couldn't stand her and it made me physically ill thinking about going into the office. I really don't have any advice here. They moved her eventually as I threatened to leave (they needed me more than her) but black mark for me as they are lazy bastards and didn't want the HR hassle

Its bloody awful though. I would pull her up each time and make notes of the bitching.

Ps I also thought part of it was personality clash but lo and behold she's been moved 3 more times, wonder why!!!

That would be really annoying. I have an annoying co worker, it’s a different situation but I do empathise.
There’s not a lot you can do other than find something else (unless she does) but likelihood there’s annoying folk in any job.

@Orchidaceae Yes it's like that, feeling ill at the thought of being in with her. I can't explain it.
I'm supposed to have a one to one in two weeks with a new area manager but he's bloody useless.
I've gone from loving my job to hating it.
I think I'll end up having to leave, it's not a career thing so I can probably find another crap paying job somewhere else.

Arthur

Yes Its awful. I listed all her strong points (not that she had many but talking shit was one of them) and said she'd be marvellous over there (rather than just saying she's useless and I hate her lol) good luck anyway

Ive had the sameness situation, my DH business so couldn’t leave! Against my advice he employed a girl that I said right from interview would be a problem he ignored my advice and employed her. She was a nightmare, we had numerous complaints about her from other staff, customers and suppliers(she was rude) She would pick and choose what she saw as important to do and so caused issues for other members of the team. The atmosphere used to change when she walked in the office, it was hell tbh. I gave her many warnings and at the last one she said I think I’d better find another job, I said I think that’s a good idea! I honestly can’t say how relieved we all were to see her go! It took months to sort all the errors she had made and we now have someone to replace her who is fab and we have a happy atmosphere again. I just pity the poor people who are employing her now...

I had similiar issues although not as intensive as yours. I read a book called "Dealing with people you can't stand". It really helped.

I have just left a job because I really couldn't stand a colleague. Totally lazy and irritating. It was getting to the point I just couldn't even bear to see his name pop up on the group chat. It was a very small team and two out of four were difficult to get along with.

I think if it’s the sort of job you could do somewhere else then if I was you I would look for somewhere else. Yes there are annoying people everywhere, but lots of workplaces you might have way more than 2 people in the office so the annoying ones are diluted. If I was doing a non-career type job, then company culture would be top of my list of important things! Unfortunately when you only have 2 people, those 2 people ARE the company culture.

If it’s admin or something like that then I’d move to a larger company with fun perks like free snacks/good Christmas parties.

Life is too short to be dealing with annoying people when you don’t have to. Reading books about it only relevant if you can’t escape them!

Maybe you can frame it as assertiveness training. Are you a mum? Can you get into mum mode with her?

I work with someone similar (though more off and on - some days she's fine, other days the most annoying person in the world). I deal with her by just doing my own thing, avoiding her if possible. If there is a clash between the two of us (ie she is being ridiculous and dramatic after nothing which seems to be her default mode), I just firmly state my own honest opinion with my eyebrows raised, and then just walk off. I think she thinks I'm a bit of a b, but she seems to get the message.