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7 Workplace Faux-Pas That Will Alienate Your Colleagues
Asking two people for the same favor and leaving one of them hanging is not cool.
“Marina, can I get your advice on something? It’s kind of personal, and I value your experience in dealing with with these things.”
I checked my watch. It was almost 8pm; I was starving and ready to get out of the office. But ‘Alice’ explained, “I just trust your perspective and don’t know anyone else who would get it.”
Okay, you got me. “Sure, let’s talk. How can I help?”
Alice described her dilemma: She was re-negotiating a contract with a work associate. But the associate was also her personal friend, and the negotiation was tricky because there wasn’t a win-win outcome. Alice didn’t want to play hardball and lose a friend, but also didn’t want to be taken advantage of. We spent a few hours talking through the different ways she could handle it. I took six pages of notes and drew a matrix with pros and cons of her options. I felt like she really needed my help, so I made the effort and was happy to do it.
After the late-night brainstorm, Alice thanked me. As we left the building, she added, “You know, I also talked to Tiffany, Mary, Brittany, Cory, and Robbie about this. Mary and Robbie had a different take. I…
