Clash between a team-member and myself - how can I handle this?

[Firefox]

I've been with my team for 6 years and got on with everyone and have always done an excellent job. However recently a new member joined who makes life very difficult - not just for me but for others in my team too. She refuses to listen to other peoples POV, attempts to make everyone else look incompetent, constantly looks for someone else to blame, and causes a lot of un-necessary conflict within the team . She also likes to "name and shame" in front of an audiance - even when she is not fully aware of all the facts. As a result of this, I complained about her informally to my line manager. He has spoken to her several times, however she still comes across as rude and aggressive. I am laid back and hate confrontation, but I am becoming increasingly fed up. Her actions put a dampner on a job I love. Could I ask my manager to arrange things so that I have as little to do with her as possible?

Don't give her a secret Santa gift?

Sorry not very constructive. Ignore her.

I complained about her informally to my line manager. He has spoken to her several times, however she still comes across as rude and aggressive.

Make a FORMAL complaint then.

Yes, make the complaint formal.

Or challenge her to a public arm wrestle.

She sounds like a bully - if she is as bad with other members of the department then it would probably be worth approaching your manager together. If s/he doesn't do anything to change situation, consider logging incidents and reporting to HR - the log would have to be convincing though, not simply "she was really off with Charlie in the meeting".

Perhaps she's just insecure and nervous, being new, and is doing a really bad job of trying to make herself known.

I suspect HD is right - even if it is bullying, probably caused by insecurity.

You have to go back to your line manager and make him realise how serious this is - if you want to rearrange your job to avoid her clearly action so far hasn't been enough.

And you could challenge her politely but firmly when she does this - so when she names and shames, speak up! Say 'I don't think you are aware of the full situation...' or something.

Hold on, why is it down to you to rock the boat? What do you get out of it? The team wants a quiet life, the team makes the complaint formal. If it all goes wrong, you are going to be a leetle exposed otherwise.

hang around and bump this later, flowery beanbay and spottywellies are fab at this stuff.
if you're not around i'll bump it for u.

IMO (I'm a manager) it would be worth explaining to whoever is in charge that the situation is becoming unpleasant and this person is attempting to undermine other team members and generally causing a deteriorating atmosphere, and that now it should be taken seriously. The idea to request that you don't work with this person is a totally reasonable one, and assuming that it is practical, it is the sort of thing that a manager is paid for!! to manage the team!! I do quite a bit of shuffling staff around to get the best combinations, as happy staff means the job gets done well and less grief for me
go for it. Good luck!
back later

She sounds like a version of a bloke I used to work with. He did exactly the same thing, name and shame,(though his favourite phrase was "naming no names" while making it very clear who he meant) refusal to listen to others, calling the rest of the department incompetent while simultaneously managing to cock up everything he did.

It was not dealt with very well by management, resulting in two nervous breakdowns, (none of them his) a case of post traumatic stress disorder and the decimation of the department. It only stopped when the entire department took out a group grevience against him.

I hope it dosen't come to that, but in the meantime, keep a diary and any documentation just in case you need it.

It is very interesting and unusual to hear this about a new team member, it would normally be the other way around.

Firefox have you or any of your colleagues spoken to her? If you don't feel able or inclined to don't worry, but in some cases a discussion with one or all of the team pointing out what she is doing and that it isn't on can be very effective, particularly if it's the whole team saying the same thing to her.

That's one option if you haven't tried it.

Otherwise you do need to make it more formal with your manager whose responsibility it is. I would request a meeting with your manager, ideally with your team excluding this person. Say you have raised this issue before but unfortunately any action he may have taken has not had the desired effect, and this person's behaviour is starting to impact in a negative way on the entire team. Say you are reluctant to bring a formal grievance as you are hopeful that he can resolve the situation without that being necessary but you are collating a diary of evidence at the moment so that you can do so shortly if you need to.
Give him plenty of examples of her behaviour, emphasise that it is impacting on the whole team, and a team which is not working well together does not perform well and you are anxious to avoid this.

If you would like to avoid the discussion with her yourselves, you need to have that discussion with your manager, being more forceful and giving yourselves a short timescale for bringing a formal grievance should you need to. In the meantime start collating a diary of incidents and read through your grievance policy so you are prepared.

bumping as promised!

Firefox agree with flowerysantasack. You really need to consider having a conversation with the person. If you don't want to do so on your own as your line manager to act as a facilitator.

If that is not possible, do you have team meetings? Could you ask your line manager to get HR to facilitate a session where you each give feedback to each other in a non threatening way - there are loads of nice ways this can be facilitated to make it easy for each of you and her.

If that scares the life out of you then do raise a formal complaint.

One thing. Someone mentioned ignoring her. whatever you do, do not do this and don't get a group to do this either. I know that people like this can be very difficult to deal with but you could find that she feels isolated and therefore bullied by others and brings a claim.

Your line manager needs to understand exactly what effect this is having on you and others and that the conversations are not working so s/he needs to step it up.