A difficult colleague may be a warning signal, not the problem. Learn how you can read persistent friction as data about ...

Most of us have dealt with that person before, right? Someone we’d classify as “difficult.” Someone we don’t like to spend time with, or who makes us feel stressed. We all have at least one person in ...

This article follows the Direct Message methodology, designed to cut through the noise and reveal the deeper truths behind the stories we live. When I began studying how workplace culture impacts ...

They’re stubborn, easily offended, and seem to thrive on conflict. Most people don’t set out to be difficult, but subtle habits sneak up on us and cause difficult behavior. The behavior feels ...

Are you dealing with a challenging person at work, at home, or in another part of your life? It’s easy to let an unreasonable individual affect us and ruin our day. What are some of the keys to ...

In a prior blog, I offered pointers to cope with the discontented characters that we all encounter in offices, schools, families and social circles, in Keeping Spirits High When Others Drag Us Down. 1 ...

Claudio Abilio had hoped to move on after ending a relationship she described as toxic and emotionally abusive. But continued interactions — for various reasons — became fraught with tension and drama ...

These six books can help ease tensions. By Louisa Kamps Earlier in my career, I worked for a hot-tempered woman who, according to an office rumor, had thrown a shoe at one of my predecessors. Rattled ...

The turbulence started just as Erin opened her laptop. A founder-turned-podcast-host, she’d been traveling for weeks—sponsorship meetings, recordings, partner dinners. Now, somewhere over the Midwest, ...

We have all met people who are so prickly and difficult that no one wants to handle them. But it has taken these contentious times to make this a common occurrence. Divisiveness makes normal ...