Do any of these words describe your co-workers?
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious,” wrote Oscar Wilde, well before there were open office floor plans or compliance departments.
This view seems rather limiting. People can be complex, and so are the words to describe them. Below are 12 words that capture the depth and breadth of the people in our work lives.
Convive — an eating or drinking companion.
My convive for this evening will be Jake from accounting.
Deceptionist — a receptionist whose job is to delay and/or block visitors.
Jill, the third-floor deceptionist, kept one sales guy waiting for 45 minutes.
Delagatorist — a leader who is incapable of making a decision.
Russell has only been successful as a delebatorist because Amy and Mark do all the work.
Dilettante — a person who has a superficial interest in a subject; an amateur.
I find cooking to be very tedious and was never more than a dilettante at it.
Garfunkel — the more outgoing person in a pair of people.
Carl is the Garfunkel in that relationship.
Macromanager — a manager who tries to direct matters outside his or her department.
Why does the Accounting VP feel the overwhelming need to macromanage everyone?
Dramalingerer — a person who pretends to be distraught or stressed to avoid doing work.
Suzanne the dramalingerer started crying when I asked her to explain why she missed her deadline.
Meeting assassin — a person who hijacks meetings by asking excessive questions or making endless follow-up comments.
The town hall meeting became tolerable once we learned meeting assassin Steve would not be attending.
Raconteur — a person skilled in telling anecdotes.
A gifted raconteur, Melvin is a hit at every party.
Spiteholder — the person (or people) in your organization who kills good ideas out of spite or to create political ill will.
We need to think carefully about how we introduce our plan. The room will be full of spiteholders.
Subject matter expert — a person who actually understands the product, their job, or how their division or department works.
I’ve asked to talk to a few subject matter experts before deciding on the email campaign.
Toady — a person who flatters or who is artificially pleasant to people in authority, usually to gain something from them.
Dictators often surround themselves with political toadies.
How many of these types do you work with?
