Dealing with Petty Coworkers

Coworkers are like adult classmates. You don't get to choose who's on your team, and you may not always get along with everyone. I work at Whole Foods, and I had a recent interaction with a coworker where she rudely inserted herself into a conversation I was having with a customer, to ice me out for continuing to converse while a line was beginning to form. I was embarrassed, and the lady I was talking to looked like she felt the same. Frustrated but making light of the situation I said "I apologize, I'm kind of under attack right now, I should move on to the next customer. It was nice chatting with you, have a great day!" She smiled, apologized and sheepishly walked away.

I disagreed with how the situation was handled and quite frankly, was pretty annoyed, but I had mastered the poker face, so I carried on helping tame the line by ringing up customers one by one until the line ceased to exist.

Moments later I had already chosen to move past her little spat, however my coworker let her feelings get the best of her and requested a mediated meeting to tell me she "didn't like me saying I was 'under attack'". Our supervisor asked me to elaborate on why I said that and when I explained my situation, he completely saw my point of view. He saw both of ours and it came down to this: I'd keep my conversations short and sweet when the store was starting to get backed up, and my coworker would mind her business, focus on doing her job, and bring any further issues to the supervisor or store team leader. Sounds good, no? We were asked to shake hands and make up.I went in for a handshake and she said "I'd rather first bump." We do that, head back to our stations, with her angrily speed walking ahead, and she goes ahead and starts getting petty with me whilst customers pass by. " I could be better." she'd say, when customers asked how she was doing, knowing I'd know what she meant.

I was feeling pretty done with her. This was the second time I was having issues with the same girl. We started as friends, I met her at work orientation and she was funny and cool. We got close really fast but she must have got too comfortable or been going through something because somewhere along the lines she started getting mean. bossy and sarcastic, I started to feel dumb around her because she'd always tell me how I was wrong or mock my dreams so I started talking less. She treated me like a kid because she's a couple years older than me and I was over it.

You can't control who you're scheduled to work with, so if you end up with someone you aren't such a fan of, these tips could be of use:

-Stay busy; when we have no lines I'm cleaning my station, dropping off baskets, restocking bags and the receipt machine, etc, but I rarely make it through the whole list before another customer pops up.Before you know it it's time for your break, you come back and repeat a second time until the end of your shift!

-Stay positive; when they go low, you go high! When she was being negative it was honestly kind of funny to me because it's like why would you want to converse with negativity? The conversations always shortened after she said that, no one asked her why, no one knew what to say, so they just waited to hear their total and get their parking validated. I always try to be positive, especially at work where I'm getting paid to dole out excellent customer service, but this time I gave an extra touch of it and my sunshine outshone her storms. I was receiving and giving compliments, listening to customers talk about her their days were going, just being attentive and present.

-Steer clear when you can, keep your energy charged up and toxin free! no one should have the power to make you fret coming to work. This is your story and they're just a passing character.