Offices are small, confined, and closed spaces where people work together for months or even years. It can be suffocating, right?
What will I learn?
How To Avoid Office Colleagues – 11 Unexplored Ways
It can also be difficult for you if you’re a loner or introvert who likes to be in their own zone. You want to stay away from your extrovert office colleagues because they require too much energy.
For doing so, you must be aware of how to avoid office colleagues in a subtle way. It’d be good if you keep in mind not to hurt anyone.
Here are some ways for how to avoid office colleagues.
1. Show Them That You’re Busy:
If you’re an introvert and don’t want to get along with your coworkers, you can show yourself busy.
Get involved in your work so much that your colleagues think before disturbing you.
Plugin your headphones and detach yourself from the world. It’s a good way to get your work done on time and not to be bothered by anyone.
If they ask for a coffee tour, you can say that you’ve got lots on your plate to do and an excuse for it.
2. Avoid Making Eye Contact With Anyone:
Not making eye contact with other people is a good way to avoid them. It signals them that you don’t want to interact, and they refrain from bothering you.
If someone talks to you at work, you should avoid making eye contact with them if you really want to avoid them.
You can answer their questions by looking at your computer or a file, so they think you’re not interested in responding.
3. How To Avoid Office Colleagues – Politely Turn Down Their Invitations:
Being an introvert and a newbie at your office, it must be very difficult to accept invitations.
If you’re not a party person and don’t want to hang out with your colleagues after work, that’s completely okay.
You can politely excuse them by saying that “I don’t think I’ll be able to come.” If your colleagues are wise enough, they’ll understand it.
If they ask the reason, you can directly say that you don’t feel like going to the meet-ups.
4. Look At Your Feet While Passing By Your Colleagues:
When you look down while passing by your colleagues, they’ll automatically keep a distance from you.
It’s a good way to show others that you don’t want to be in their company and that you’re an introvert.
So when you look down when someone’s are thinking of interacting with you, they’ll skip this idea.
5. How To Avoid Office Colleagues – Say That You’re Not Well:
We all have been across that clingy coworkers who forces you to go outside with him for a coffee. It can be very difficult to turn down the invitation of such a person, as you don’t want to hurt him.
But you can excuse that you have a headache and don’t want to go out for a stroll.
If they offer any help, you can say that you’ll be fine sometimes if you stay alone.
6. Excuse For An Urgent Meeting:
Not getting mixed up with your office colleagues is normal, and it shouldn’t be an obligation. If you don’t want to be a part of their gossip group, you can use different excuses.
One of these excuses is that you’ve to attend an important meeting. If you have a meeting with your boss, then that’s well and good.
However, if you don’t have a meeting in the office, you can excuse an outdoor meeting with a client.
7. How To Avoid Office Colleagues – Pretend You’re On The Phone:
When a colleague is approaching you for a chit-chat, get yourself busy on your phone. You can scroll for apps or start playing your favorite game and pretend that you’re doing something important.
When you look at your phone while someone is talking to you, it’s the best way to get rid of their nonsense.
You can also dial into your close friend and talk to them for a while in order to avoid your office colleagues.
8. Tell Them You Got To Run Errands:
During the lunch break, your office colleague might invite you to have lunch together. But being an introvert, you’ve always liked eating alone.
So it would be okay to turn down this invitation. You can tell your annoying office colleagues that you’ve got to run errands.
And when you go outside, you can have a cup of coffee alone or eat your lunch in peace.
A coworker won’t mind this excuse because we all have something important to do during lunch breaks.
9. How To Avoid Office Colleagues – Stay Off From Social Media:
If you want to maintain a distance between yourself and your office colleagues, you should stay off social media.
Connecting to your office colleagues on social media means that you’re allowing them to be in your social circle.
They’ll want to be friends with you and try to know more about you. So if you don’t want this to happen, you should either stay off of social media.
Or you can block them before they see you in their friend suggestions. If they ask about it, you can say that you don’t use social media.
10. Avoid Excessive Trips To Water Cooler:
If you make excessive trips to the water cooler, your coworkers will try to talk to you and know more about you.
In order to avoid this scenario, you shouldn’t roam around the office and sneak into others’ cabins.
Stay focused on your work and refrain from talking too much to anyone to avoid your office colleagues.
11. How To Avoid Office Colleagues – Be Strict About Your Deadlines:
When you keep yourself true to your work commitments, no one else can distract you.
For avoiding your office colleagues, you should look busy and do your work most of the time.
If they invite you for lunch, you can say that you have a project deadline approaching you.
It’s a good way to avoid your office colleagues and get your work done both at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How To Handle Irritating Colleagues?
While dealing with annoying coworkers, you must maintain a positive attitude. Let them do whatever they want and ignore their flaws. Accept that no one is perfect and collaborate with them. You can politely reject their attention if you want to.
How To Deal With People At Work?
You must demonstrate respect at work no matter who’s the person in front of you. Trust your coworkers and get trusted by them. Provide impactful feedback and handle criticism with grace and dignity. You should also show appreciation.
How Do You Handle Difficult Situations At Work?
Dealing with difficult behaviors at work can be tricky for you. However, never react back when someone’s angry. Practice direct communication when things get cool down and focus on your career.
What To Do When Someone’s Trying To Make You Look Bad At Work?
When someone is trying to ruin your image, you should be direct with them instead of complaining to the boss. Politely ask them that why they think you’re a misfit for this job. Or why they’re creating troubles for you.
Conclusion
Being an introvert and enjoying your own circle is not bad; one shouldn’t feel guilty for doing so.
However, if you want to avoid your office colleagues, you should do it with care. Try not to hurt or harm anyone’s sentiments as you turn down invitations and avoid meet-ups.
It’s not an obligation to force yourself to mix up with people. You’ve been like this all your life, and you should stay who you are!
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Last Updated on 2 years by Shahzaib Arshad
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