13.5: Problematic Workplace Relationships

Learning Outcomes

1. Define and explain the term deviant workplace behavior.
2. Explain Janie Harden Fritz’s six types of problematic bosses.
3. Describe Janie Harden Fritz’s eight types of problematic coworkers.
4. Assess Janie Harden Fritz’s five types of problematic subordinates.

Eventually, everyone is going to run into someone within the workplace that is going to drive them crazy. There are many books out there designed to help you deal with difficult people, toxic people, workplace vampires, jerks, energy drainers, etc. Some of these people are just irritants, whereas other problem people can be more egregious (e.g., aggressive, bullying, deviating from work norms, overly cynical about everything). We view these people as problem people because they ultimately take more of our resources to deal with. There’s a reason some writers refer to “problem people” as emotional vampires because we have to use more of our emotional resources to deal with these people, and they increase our levels of stress along the way.⁶⁶ In this section, we are going to explore the different types of problem people we come in contact within the workplace and how we can strive towards workplace civility. In organizational literature, we often refer to these people as engaging in deviant workplace behavior, or voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and practices or threatens the wellbeing of the organization and its members.

Research on problem people in the workplace tends to demonstrate that we have problem people at all levels of the organization. We have problematic bosses, peers, and subordinates. In 2002 (later updated in 2009), Janie Harden Fritz created a typology of the different types of problem people we encounter in the workplace.^67,68 Figure 13.5.1 shows the typology. In this typology, Harden Fritz discusses how different positions in the workplace can lead to varying types of problem people. Let’s examine each of these individually.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Problematic People in the Workplace

Problem Bosses

Through Harden Fritz’s research into bosses, she found that there are six common types of problematic bosses: the different, the good old boy or good old girl, the okay, the toxic, the self-centered taskmaster, and the intrusive harasser.

The Different Boss

First, The Different Boss is someone a subordinate sees as distractingly different from them as a person. Different subordinates are going to view what is “distractingly different” in a wide range of different ways. Some people who view their bosses as “distractingly different” may also be succumbing to their prejudices about people from various social groups. For example, if someone’s boss is from another country, those cultural differences can make that subordinate see their boss as distractingly different.

The Good Old Boy or Good Old Girl Boss

Second is the good old boy or good old girl boss. This type of boss is someone who probably hasn’t progressed along with the modern world of corporate thinking. This person may be gregarious and outgoing, but they tend to see the “old ways of doing things” as best—even when they’re problematic. These individuals tend to see sexual harassment as something that isn’t a big deal in the workplace. Their subordinates are also more likely to view some of their behaviors as unethical.

The Okay Boss

The third type of boss is the okay boss. This person is exactly like the name says, okay and average in just about every way possible. These individuals are, in many ways, coasting towards retirement. They try not to rock the boat within the organization, so they will never stand up to their bosses, nor will they advocate for their subordinates. For someone who likes work and wants to succeed in life, working for one of these people can be very frustrating because the okay boss likes the status quo and creates an environment in which the average is the norm and people who exceed the average are the outcasts.

The Toxic Boss

Fourth, we have the toxic boss. These bosses are all-around problematic in the workplace. They are often seen as unethical, obnoxious, and unprofessional by their subordinates. These are the types of bosses that can create hostile work environments and pit employees against each other for their amusement. However, when it comes to harassing behavior, they are less likely to engage in harassment directly. Still, they can often create environments where both sexual harassment and bullying become the norm.

The Self-Centered Taskmaster

The fifth type of problematic boss is the self-centered taskmaster. The self-centered taskmaster is ultimately “focused on getting the job done to advance their own goals, without concern for others.” ⁶⁹ This type of boss is purely focused on getting work done. This individual may be excessive in the amount of work they give subordinates. Ultimately, this individual wants to show their superiors how good of a boss they are to move up the organizational hierarchy. On the flip side, these people are highly competent, but their tendency to lord power over others in an obnoxious way makes working for this type of boss very stressful.

The Intrusive Harasser Boss

Sixth, we have the intrusive harasser boss. This individual tends to be highly interfering and often wants to get caught up in their subordinates’ personal and professional lives. They are likely to be overly attentive in the workplace, which can interfere with an individual’s ability to complete their task assignments. Furthermore, this boss is likely to be one who engages in activities like sexual harassment, backstabbing, and busybody behavior.

Problem Coworkers

Through her research into coworkers, Harden Fritz has found that there are eight common types of problematic coworkers: the adolescent, the bully, the mild annoyance, the independent self-promoter, the pushy playboy or playgirl, the independent other, the soap opera star, and the the abrasive, incompetent harasser.

The Adolescent

The first common problematic coworker is the adolescent. The adolescent is the Peter Pan of the business world, they don’t want to grow up. These people tend to want to be the center of attention and will be the first to let everyone know when they’ve accomplished something. You almost feel like you need to give them a Scooby Snack just for doing their job. However, if someone dares to question them, they tend to become very defensive, probably because they don’t want others to know how insecure they feel.

The Bully

Second, we have the bully. This individual has a knack of being overly demanding on their peers, but then dares to take credit for their peers’ work when the time comes. This is your prototypical schoolyard bully all grown up and in an office job. In their 2005 study, Charlotte Rayner and Loraleigh Keashly examined the available definitions for “workplace bullying” and determined five specific characteristics:

1. The experience of negative behavior;
2. Behaviors experienced persistently;
3. Targets experiencing damage;
4. Targets labeling themselves as bullied; and
5. Targets with less power and difficulty defending themselves.⁷⁰

You’ll notice from this list that being a bully isn’t a one-off behavior for these coworkers. This behavior targets individuals in a highly negative manner, happens over a long period, and can have longterm psychological and physiological ramifications for individuals who are targeted. We should note that bullies do not happen in isolation, but more often than not run in packs. For this reason, a lot of European research on this subject has been referred to as mobbing instead of bullying. Sadly, this is an all-too-frequent occurrence in the modern work world. In a large study examining 148 international corporations through both qualitative and quantitative methods, Randy Hodson, Vincent Roscigno, and Steven Lopez report that 49% of the organizations they investigated had routine patterns of workplace bullying.⁷¹

The Mild Annoyance

The third type of problematic coworker is the mild annoyance. When it comes down to it, this person isn’t going to ruin your day, but they are mildly annoying on a routine basis. Maybe it’s a coworker who wants to come in every morning and talk to you about what they watched on television the night before while you’re trying to catch up on email. Or maybe it’s the coworker who plays music a little too loudly in the workplace. There are all kinds of things that can annoy us as human beings, so the mildly annoying coworker is one that generally is tolerated.

The Independent Self-Promoter

Fourth, we have the independent self-promoter. The independent self-promoter is someone who likes to toot their own horn at work. This individual tends to be slightly to extremely narcissistic, thinking the world revolves around them. These individuals are not the type to take credit for other people’s work, but they also aren’t the type to do work that needs to be done unless they see its utility in making them look good.

The Pushy Playboy or Playgirl

The fifth problematic coworker is the pushy playboy or playgirl. The pushy playboy or playgirl is an individual marked by their tendency to push other coworkers into doing things for the pushy playboy or playgirl. Often these tasks have nothing to do with work at all. For example, the pushy playboy or playgirl would be the type of person to demand that a younger or more submissive coworker run down the street for a Starbucks run. Furthermore, these are the types of people who tend to be overly demanding of coworkers and then misrepresent their performance to those higher up in the corporate food chain.

The Independent

Other The sixth common problematic coworker is the independent other. In many ways, the independent other is similar to the different bosses discussed earlier. These people tend to be perceived as uniquely different from their coworkers. There are a lot of characteristics that can make someone viewed as uniquely other. Any specific demographic that goes against the workplace norm could be cause for perceiving someone as different: age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, etc. Some people may view them as having a low work ethic, but this perception may stem out of that perceived “otherness.”

The Soap Opera Star

The seventh common problematic coworker identified by Harden Fritz is the soap opera star.⁷² The soap opera star lives for drama in the workplace. New rumors of office romances? This person will have the 411 and probably a Tumblr page devoted to the couple. For this reason, this person tends to be a busybody to the nth degree and will be all up in everyone’s business both at work and in their personal lives. Because of their tendency towards drama (both finding it and often creating it), they are generally seen as highly distracting by their peers. At the same time, they tend to spend so much time digging for office gossip that they are typically perceived as having a poor work ethic by others.

The Abrasive, Incompetent Harasser

The final type of problematic coworker is the abrasive, incompetent harasser, which is an individual who tends to be highly uncivil in the workplace with a particular emphasis on sexually harassing behavior. This coworker is very similar to the intrusive harasser boss discussed earlier. This individual is generally viewed as incompetent and unprofessional in the workplace. This person tends to score high on all of the problematic work behaviors commonly seen by coworkers.

Mindfulness Activity

There are a ton of books on the market designed for business people to help them get along with their coworkers. Like it or not, but we all are going to work with people that drive us crazy. So, what’s a mindful way to approach these situations when you have to interact with a coworker is far from being mindful. As usual, our first steps should always be attention, intention, and attitude. However, we can only control our perspectives about others and not their behaviors.

Think of a time when you had to interact with a coworker who was not behaving mindfully.

1. How was their behavior problematic? How did you feel challenged by this person?
2. What was the outcome of this person’s behavior on your mindfulness practice, your relationship, or your work?
3. If others were involved, how did they respond?
4. What role (if any) did you play in triggering this person’s behavior?
5. What will take away from this experience? How can you approach this person more mindfully in the future?

Research Spotlight

In their 2017, Stacy Tye-Williams and Kathleen J. Krone examine the advice given to victims of workplace bullying. Going into this study, the researchers realized that a lot of the advice given to victims makes it their personal responsibility to end the bullying, “You should just stand up to the bully” or “You’re being too emotional this.”

The researchers interviewed 48 people who had been the victims of workplace bullying (the average age was 28). The participants had worked on average for 5 ½ years in the organization where they were bullied. Here are the top ten most common pieces of advice victims received:

1. Quit/get out
2. Ignore it/blow it off/do not let it affect you
3. Fight/stand up
4. Stay calm
5. Report the bullying
6. Be quiet/keep mouth shut
7. Be rational
8. Journal
9. Avoid the bully
10. Toughen up

The researchers discovered three underlying themes of advice. First, participants reported that they felt they were being told to downplay their emotional experiences as victims. The second was what the researchers called the “dilemma of advice,” or the tendency to believe that the advice given wasn’t realistic and wouldn’t change anything. Furthermore, many who followed the advice reported that it made things worse, not better. Lastly, the researchers note the “paradox of advice.” Some participants wouldn’t offer advice because bullying is contextual and needs a more contextually-based approach. Yet others admitted that they offered the same advice to others that they’d been offered, even when they knew the advice didn’t help them at all.

The researches ultimately conclude, “The results of this study point to a paradoxical relationship between advice and its usefulness. Targets felt that all types of advice are potentially useful. However, the advice either would not have worked in their case or could possibly be detrimental if put into practice.”⁷³ Ultimately, the researchers argue that responding to bullying must first take into account the emotions the victim is receiving, and that responses to bullying should be a group and not a single individual’s efforts.

Tye-Williams, S., & Krone, K. J. (2017). Identifying and re-imagining the paradox of workplace bullying advice. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 45(2), 218–235. doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2017.128 8291

Problem Subordinates

In the two previous sections, we’ve looked at problematic bosses and coworkers, but subordinates can also be a bit of a problem in the workplace. For this reason, Harden Fritz identifies five clear troublesome subordinates: the okay subordinate, the abrasive harasser, the bully, the different other, and the incompetent renegade. ⁷⁴

The Okay Subordinate

First, we have the okay subordinate. Just like the name suggests, this person is neither stellar nor awful; this person is just okay. This person does tend towards being a mildly annoying busybody at work. Still, none of their behavior rises to the status where a supervisor would need to step in and counsel the employee’s behavior formally.

The Abrasive Harasser

Second, we have the abrasive harasser. The abrasive harasser is an individual who need regular counseling about what constitutes sexual harassment. They may not even always realize what types of behavior are appropriate in the workplace. For example, this subordinate could forward their supervisor a sexual joke via email without thinking others could perceive the joke as inappropriate. On the more extreme end, you have people who are perpetual sexual harassers who need to be severely counseled to protect the organization. In some cases, the person will need to be fired for harassing behavior.

The Bully

The next common problem subordinate is the bully. According to Harden Fritz, this subordinate is one “who bosses others, usurps authority, is competitive and is at the same time insecure.” ⁷⁵ If this person’s behavior is not curtailed by their supervisor, it can quickly become infectious and end up hurting cohesion throughout the entire office. Furthermore, supervisors need to recognize this behavior and ensure that the targets of the bully have a safe and secure place to work. Don’t be surprised if this person decides to bully upward, or attempt to bully their supervisor.

The Different Other

The fourth common problem subordinate is the different other. Just like the two previous versions of “difference” discussed for bosses and coworkers, the different other is a subordinate who is perceived as distinctly different from their supervisor. One thing we know from years of management research is that people who are perceived as different from their supervisors are less likely to enjoy protective and mentoring relationships with their supervisors. As such, when a supervisor views someone as a “different other,” they may engage in subconscious discriminatory behavior towards their subordinate.

The Incompetent Renegade

Finally, we have the incompetent renegade. This individual tends to be ethically incompetent and views themself as above the law within the organization. This individual may view themself as better than the organization to begin with, which causes a lot of problems around the office. However, instead of accomplishing their work, this person is more likely to take credit for others’ work. If this subordinate is allowed to keep behaving in this manner, they will be viewed by others as running the place. For this reason, subordinates need to immediately initiate counseling to stop the behavior and build a case for termination if the behavior does not cease.

Key Takeaways

• Workplace deviance involves the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and practices or threatens the wellbeing of the organization and its members.
• Janie Harden Fritz has categorized six types of problematic bosses: different, okay good old boy/girl, toxic, self-centered taskmaster, and intrusive harasser. First, the different boss is someone a subordinate sees as distractingly different from them as a person. Second, the good old boy/girl boss considers the “old ways of doing things” as best—even when they’re problematic. Third, the okay boss is okay and average in just about every way possible, coasting towards retirement. Fourth, the toxic boss is seen as unethical, obnoxious, and unprofessional by their subordinates. Fifth, the self-centered taskmaster is entirely concerned with completing tasks with no concern for developing relationships with their followers. Lastly, the intrusive harasser boss tends to be highly interfering and often wants to get caught up in their subordinates’ personal and professional lives.
• Janie Harden Fritz categorized eight types of problematic coworkers: adolescent (wants to be the center of attention and get nothing done), the bully (is overly demanding of their peers and takes credit for their work), the mild annoyance (engages in disruptive behaviors regularly but not to a drastic degree), the independent self-promoter (likes to toot their own horn), the pushy the playboy or playgirl (pushes people into doing things for them), independent other (perceived as distinctly different from their coworkers), the soap opera star (loves to gossip and be in the middle of all of the workplace drama), and the abrasive, incompetent harasser (is highly uncivil in the workplace with a special emphasis in sexually harassing behavior).
• Janie Harden Fritz categorized five types of problematic subordinates: the okay subordinate, the abrasive harasser, the bully, the different other, and the incompetent renegade. First, the okay substitute is a follower who is not stellar or awful, just very much middle of the road. Second, the abrasive harasser is an individual who tends to be someone who needs counseling regularly about what constitutes sexual harassment. Third, the bully is someone who bosses their peers around, usurps authority, and engages in hypercompetitive behavior when competition is not necessary (all signs of someone who is deeply insecure). Fourth, the different other is a follower who is perceived as distinctly different from their supervisor. Finally, the incompetent renegade is ethically incompetent and views themself as above the law within the organization.

Exercises

• Which of the six types of problematic bosses would you have the most problem working for? Why?
• In both the coworker and subordinate categories, “difference” is viewed as a problem in the workplace. Why do you think so many workers have a problem with difference? How should management approach situations where difference is impacting coworker relationships or leader-follower relationships?
• Think of a time when you’ve worked with a problematic coworker. Which of Janie Harden Fritz’s eight types of problematic coworkers did your coworker fit into? Did they fit into more than one? How did you handle this coworker relationship?