How do you deal with a coworker who acts like the "world" owes her something?

Question

1 of my coworkers just came in town from a weekend birthday vacation, & the 1st thing she did when she walked in the building was verbally chew me out because someone else left something in the sink, & she thought it was me.

She picks & picks & picks @ me UNTIL she gets what she wants. It seems like she's jealous of me for being a harder worker than she is. She wants to be everyone's boss.

She always brings up her military experience, every time we get into it. She's very confrontational & makes it hard to avoid her. Ignoring her doesn't help. She really provokes people to want to hurt her. My boss just says, "Oh, I'm sorry this happened.", every time I tell her. & the supervisor OVER her is never available.

But anyway, this coworker bullies everyone & thinks we all should bow down to her & treat her like a queen, just because she served in the Air Force. She DEMANDS special treatment that she doesn't deserve. & she tries to freeload off of others, rather than help herself.

Answer 1

If she is on the same level as you and you do not have to work "with" her - meaning you do not collaborate on work assignments, just ignore her. When she tries to talk to you, say "Excuse me.. I'm not able to talk right now."

If you do have to work with her, then practice some patience. It will wear her down when you do not respond to her demands or stories. Stick to talking about the work at hand that needs to be dealt with. Otherwise, do not respond to her. She'll get tired of talking to someone who she can't get to respond to her drama.

If this person is violating some written work rules, is truly preventing you from getting work done, is using foul language (and you never do), is threatening in anyway and others can say the same thing, then you need to go to your Human Resources department and explain the situation. But do this only after you've talked to your boss again and explained to her that the situation is intolerable and you plan to go to HR. Give your boss another chance to deal with it before you go over her head.

But if the problem is really that she's an insufferable bore, then don't give her the time of day. She'll have to find someone else to rant to if she can't get any kind of response from you. It will take a while for her to move on, but she will. Drama queens always need an active audience and they will seek another one out eventually.

Answer 2

Tell her to shut the f* up and no one cares...or tell her she's played the military card enough and to knock it off.

Answer 3

Next time she does that tell her you are recording all these incidents and if they continue, you will report her to HR and file a complaint for verbal abuse and harassment which is illegal in the workplace. Then do it.

Answer 4

thank her for her service and politely agree to disagree. you have to make it as comfortable as possible with people you work with

Answer 5

Tell her point blank, she doesn't scare or intimidate you. Look her in the eye, tell her that, and let her be the first to break eye contact. Bullies are just cowards,. they usually just back down when you confront them.  They get off on others fearing them, and when they lose that they don't know what to do.