Want to give a big thanks to Ian for being gracious enough to offer up a post for my blog...He has done a lot for those of us that follow him to bring other readers to our blogs...Just drop by The Daily Dose of Reality and give him a read (if you haven't already)

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Co-workers, A Love Story

First and foremost, I'd like to thanks Bendigo for not only reading all 470+ of my blog posts, but being able to win the scavanger hunt this past week. In return, I promised him that I'd write an entry for him on his blog. The topic is co-workers, and there's always alot of discussion surrounding this topic. Fasten your seat belts, another classic rant is in the making.

Co-workers. Love em? Hate em? Depending on the day it can go back and forth several times. I always joke around and say that the world would be a better place if nobody was in it. I feel that way about some of the past jobs I've had and the crappy coworkers within. Something my boss told me in my first full time job that's always stuck with me. Challenge your co-workers. Challenge them to outproduce you or to further the team, dept, division, etc. Challenge them if you feel as though they are wrong. The same goes for someone one step higher than you. And here's the kicker - anyone who's two steps higher than you should be considered untouchable. That's what's stuck with me all these years. If you look at things that way, you'll do just fine. But there's one last thing my boss said to me as I was leaving his office that day. Anytime you plan on challeging a co-worker, especially when something you feel is done wrong, then you had better be respectful about it.

Case in point. I happen to work with this fresh out of college person who is as green as the money he/she spends. I happen to be one notch higher than this person and I am constantly called out on the carpet in person and over email. Granted I am not the type to snitch on other people but he/she is on my very last nerve at time. Yes, I have been working for 12 years full time at what I do. You are damn lucky that they decided to hire college students for the recent openings. 12 months ago they were hiring people for your role at least 3-5 years of experience. Guess what? I needed at least 7 years direct experience to even apply for my job. So you are lucky in that aspect. But the next time you plan on calling me out over email thinking that you happen to know something moreso than I do, then I'm going to go ape sh*t. And this happens nearly every day.

All I am saying is that you have to deal with your co-workers for a longer period of time during the day than you are awake in the given day. Just make life a bit easier on your co-workers and with any luck they will return the favor.

But we all know the truth. We know the world's a screwed up place and it just doesn't work out that way. We can only hope and pray that the next person your manager decides to hire isn't a complete and total utter douchebag.