That difficult person at work
Every workplace seems to have one.
The difficult colleague.
The challenging client.
The person who pushes your buttons before they’ve even opened their mouth.
In this Quick Spoon from my conversation with Dr Eric Goodman, we explore a different way of responding to difficult people at work.
Not by excusing behaviour.
Not by pretending it’s easy.
But by asking a different question:
What if compassion reduced your suffering… not just theirs?
A practical reflection on threat responses, workplace relationships, and how seeing people differently might change the impact they have on us.
People Soup: Real conversations about work, leadership, and being human — grounded in behavioural science, with practical ideas you can actually use.
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Transcript
QS8. That Difficult Person at Work
[:[00:00:00] have some say in in who we can become.
[:[00:00:06] have this difficult person at work,
[:[00:00:10] to see them with
[:[00:00:13] when you see them It's not the
[:[00:00:16] system.
[:[00:00:17] getting dumped with [00:00:20] cortisol
[:[00:00:23] person, but you're able to activate,
[:[00:00:29] going to come with [00:00:30] less suffering and they'll be more adaptive for you.
[:[00:00:51] Speaker 2: This one's about that person. You know, the difficult colleague, the challenging client, the person who pushes [00:01:00] your buttons. Eric offers a different perspective. What if they didn't choose the experiences that shaped them?
[:[00:01:20] Ross: That's your QUICK SPOON Until next time, take care.
