By: Marge McQuade, CMSCS, CHCI

Have you worked with someone who is rude or unprofessional on the job or have you been subjected to yelling and verbal abuse on the job? Have you been driven to tears or experienced pushing, slapping, or hitting by someone at work? While some people's negative experiences with their coworkers are chiefly annoyances, others' experiences are horror stories of assaults, or of backstabbers, saboteurs, liars, two-faces, gossipers, slackers, thieves, bullies, harassers, or incompetents.

As with any dysfunctional relationship, the relationships among coworkers are sometimes one-sided. And because we tend to spend more time in contact with our coworkers, they have more opportunities to drive us crazy. There are different types of problematic coworkers that you may have to deal with: