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While companies strive harder than ever before to employ people that fit their enterprise culture, new coworkers can still disrupt team dynamics with their behavior.
In more extreme situations, a co-worker’s toxic behavior can destroy morale, decline productivity, and increase conflicts in the workplace. It can make life very painful for colleagues who work with these people, as they cannot control who they work with.
But it’s sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly why a colleague is toxic…
To help, Brother UK decided that because it is so crucial to find out how to deal with difficult co-workers of all kinds, there should be a guidebook to help with how you interact with more challenging team members.
Whether an office gossip who transmits rumors about teammates or a manipulative bully who alienates everybody in their path. Brother UK has produced a handy guidebook full of practical advice to help.
The Brother UK team also analyzed data from social media sites to discover where in the United Kingdom and the United States cities which have the worst workmates.
To find out which places have the worst co-workers in the United States and the United Kingdom, Brother UK has analyzed over 1.3 million Tweets and used the Hugging Face sentiment analysis AI tool to find out whether posts about coworkers were negative or positive.
The Brother UK team gathered the posts by geolocation to determine which areas have high proportions of negative sentiment towards colleagues.
The team created a comprehensive infographic to help you identify the signs of a lousy co-worker and how to take action should a coworker affect your day-to-day work.
The U.S. States with the Worst Co-Workers
From bustling offices in NYC to remote enterprises in the Midwest, nasty co-workers can be found anywhere in the United States. Whether you’ve worked with the loose-lipped office gossip or a narcissistic manipulator, the Brother UK team researched all U.S. 50 states to find where colleagues are at their worst.
The data shows that 43.2% of Twitter posts in Alaska about co-workers are negative. Residents of Wyoming (39.5%) and Louisiana (39.4%) also aired grievances with their co-workers online.
The U.S. Cities with the Worst Co-Workers
After analyzing over 1 million Tweets, the team found that Mesa, Arizona, has the worst co-workers in the United States. Labeled as the country’s most conservative city by the Pew Research Center, 41.4% of posts about colleagues in the city are negative, more than Detroit, Michigan (40.6%) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (39%).
The Top and Bottom U.S. Cities with the Worst Co-Workers
A recent Gallup poll found that 75% of workers quit their jobs because of a terrible boss. However, any toxic colleague can make working life a struggle. According to our research, 41.4% of negative tweets, residents of Mesa, Arizona, find their teammates most challenging to work with. However, workers in Washington, DC, are the most positive about their colleagues – 43.8% of posts supported co-workers in the nation’s capital.
The UK Counties with the Worst Co-Workers
Now it’s time to find out where Brits struggle most with their colleagues.
While cities are known for busy offices with large teams, bad co-workers can also crop up outside of town. Workers in the Glasgow area are clearly struggling with their teammates. Three local authorities – South Ayrshire (32.9%), Inverclyde (32.8%), and West Dunbartonshire (32.7%) all had high proportions of negative Tweets about their co-workers.
The UK Cities with the Worst Co-Workers
Brother UK team found out that Britain’s worst co-workers can be found in Southend-on-Sea. Data from over 1 million Tweets suggest the Essex seaside town is home to team members that people can’t stand, with 30.3% of negative posts about them.
The Top and Bottom UK Cities with the Worst Co-Workers
The analysis of Twitter posts shows that Southend-on-Sea has the worst colleagues, with negative sentiment in 30.3% of tweets about co-workers. Meanwhile, workers in Bradford love their team members, with a whopping 60% positive post rate.
How to deal with 6 types of bad colleagues
Regardless of the industry, you work in, any workplace can have difficult colleagues that can make your job more challenging to perform. According to a study by Olivet Nazarene University, the tension between colleagues is the number one source of conflict in a business, and 36% of people reported changing jobs because of difficult or arrogant co-workers.
However, it is essential to understand how to deal with difficult coworkers of all kinds, whether an office gossiper who spreads rumors about colleagues or a manipulative bully who alienates everyone in their path.
Key Findings
– The Essex seaside town of Southend-on-Sea has the United Kingdom’s worst colleagues, with negative sentiment in 30.3 percent of tweets.
– Mesa, Arizona, has America’s worst co-workers. 41.6 percent of tweets about colleagues in this suburb of Phoenix are negative, more than Detroit, Michigan (40.6%) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (39%).
– Three local authority territories in the Glasgow area–South Ayrshire (32.9%), Inverclyde (32.8%), and West Dunbartonshire (32.7%) have the highest percentages of negative Tweets about their colleagues anywhere in the United Kingdom.
