Career guru Erin McGoff has opened up on the most effective way of responding to bitterness and intimidation in the workplace – and its not what you might expect
A career expert has offered advice on how to handle “overt rudeness” in the workplace – explaining there is a simple solution you should use to shut down intimidation from colleagues.
Taking to Instagram, Erin McGoff, who hosts the ‘No One Knows What They’re Doing’ podcast, says she believes silence can prove golden when it comes to being on the receiving end of hate.
She began with a clip shared to her 1.8 million followers, playing out a scenario in the office that saw a member of staff condescend a new colleague.
The video begins with a woman (played by Erin) innocently telling a co-worker (also Erin) that she’s “the new executive assistant”. She’s then met with the rude response: “Oh you can just say that you get your boss coffee.”
However, rather than reacting angrily and calling out the bad behaviour, Erin suggests a more pragmatic approach. “Rude people at work have fragile egos,” she explains. “They over compensate by putting you down to make them feel better about themselves. Just try to ignore them as much as possible. Keep it classy – and don’t give them what they want.”
Erin adds that other suitable replies to the ‘coffee’ jibe could have been, “I didn’t quite get that, what did you say?”, or a humorous, “Oh, I’m supposed to be getting him coffee? Oops!”
However, she goes on to explain that in some situations, the greatest way to say something is by saying nothing at all. “I find that silence is extremely effective,” Erin says. “Most of the time, rude people at work are looking to put you down to make them feel better about themselves.
“So by making them feel awkward, they will be trained to no longer behave that way. They will take the backtracking as a choice they made to save face, not something you made them do.”
She continues: “If you respond verbally, you give them something to latch on to and tell everyone else “that new girl/guy is such a [negative word]!] But if you simply can endure 3-4 seconds of awkward silence, you challenge them on a deeper level.”
Erin, who is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, director and editor, saw her advice met with praise from dozens of her fans. “Hey Erin – I really appreciate your posts!” one Instagram user gushed. “I lead a team of 7 and have encouraged them to follow you.”
Another begged: “More of this please! How to deal with difficult people at work. It’s a talent!” Whilst a third penned: “Thank you for sharing this I used to do that just stay quiet or kept it brief and later on would always feel bad wondering if I should’ve said more to defend myself. I would feel better when I would get recognise for my work and they wouldn’t.”
As well as Instagram, Erin also shares her advice over on TikTok, where she boasts 2.8million followers.
