A business office occupied by more than one person will usually have some type of conflict. As office personnel numbers increase, so does the likelihood of conflict. The problem is that work needs to be accomplished for the corporate chain or for customers. Office conflict can quickly get in the way of performing your job functions at a consistently high level. How does a person do excellent work and survive conflict in the office?
Do your job.
Parts of every job are easily within the control of the person who performs them. Focus your energy on making sure that these tasks get completed properly and on time. Once your part of the total package is completed, you can spend some time working to make sure that others are getting their pieces finished. It does little good to complain about the lack of production of others if your own work is lagging.
Try not to contribute to office politics.
Certain people feed on conflict. They will do what they can to keep the pot stirring at the office. You can do very little to keep them from creating issues from every little thing. By avoiding intentionally giving them material to spin into trouble, you will find that most of the office conflict will not involve you.
Stay on offense when trying to survive office conflicts.
Make your job performance, attitude, and attendance stand out. You cannot keep a person who targets you from saying negative comments about you. If your reputation around the office is strongly positive, most of these comments will not be effective. Those who know you will not be quickly persuaded by empty words. As long as you maintain a high ethic at the office, you should find that even those who like conflict will not find you to be a decent target.
Cover your back against attacks.
If your career is progressing upward, you will find that some conflict will erupt from competition with coworkers even if you do not feel that you are competing with them. Many workers believe that way to the top is to eliminate the competition. To protect yourself from these attacks, you have to develop work habits that inform your superiors at each step.
Keep good records.
When you have conversations with coworkers about the job, document what was said. Keep it in your files and forward a copy to your boss. If you have written communication with others, always carbon copy the supervisor. In this way, when someone tries to undercut you, you have built a foundation for your actions. This should give you adequate protection from a bad outcome unless the boss has decided not to like you.