Corporate life
Pedestrians walk past the Reuters office in London May 15, 2007 Reuters/Jonathan Bainbridge

Working in an office will require you to deal with different personalities. Among these are bossy individuals who tend to push others around or even delegate their work to someone in the same level.

You have to handle the situation in a professional manner and resolve the issue once and for all.

1. Assess the behavior

Determine the kind of bossiness that your coworker has. Some people are bossy because they are very dedicated to their work while others have personal issues that need to be dealt with. Be compassionate about their behavior so you can better identify the right approach that will suit their personality without disrupting work or ruining relationships.

2. Ignore the situation

If the bossy officemate disrupts you only on certain occasions, you may ignore their commands or behavior completely. Continue focusing on your work and do not mind the intrusive behavior. Focus on improving your own output and do not get affected by the occasional disruptions.

3. Indirect confrontation

This is an indirect manner of stating how you feel about the situation. Indicate via email or a printed letter how you feel that he is interrupting your work. List the specific occasions when you felt bossed around by the other person. It is important that he is wary of his behavior because many actually do not realize how they are acting until someone directly tells them.

4. Direct confrontation

If the behavior persists or if your work output is adversely affected by the bossy colleague, it may be time to confront him verbally. Request to talk to the person for a few minutes then firmly tell him how his attitude is affecting your work. Also tell him that the issue has to be resolved between the two of you before things get worse that you have to forward the problem to a superior.

5. Confide with your boss

If none of the above approaches work, it is time to have a superior intervene. Write a letter to your boss stating how the bossy behavior of your coworker is hindering your output as well as those of others in the firm. Again, specify the situations when you were bossed around. Allow your boss to formulate strategies to improve teamwork or refer to the company policies in resolving the problem.