I’ve been brought into a firm as a contractor with another bloke who’s 62.

It’s fair to say that this guy is 100% work orientated to the degree that he has lived in a flat away from his family for the past 20 years and has no other interests or hobbies. When he is at home he does extra work when really there is no need to and the sole function of his wife seems to be as a source of clean shirts every weekend. All of which is up to him and something that I would never make comment about in the office.

Recently his behaviour has become a bit weird, in that..

– He’s trying to take over my area of work
– He put a paper out for comment and then kicked off at anyone who mentioned anything
– He’s started to make comments to other people in the office if I have a day off and tried to capitalise from it.

I could understand it if we were under lots of pressure or our jobs were threatened, but we are only 6 months into a 3 year job.

It all came to head yesterday and we had quite a row after he was butting in to a phone conversation I was having with another dept after he’d got involved with something he shouldn’t have.

The guy is a sad man, but it’s making it very uncomfortable. I called him a juvenile ****, which has really cleared the air.

Any ideas on how to deal with it?

Tell him you work to live not live to work.

Or just tell him to piss off.

Hes worried about losing his job in the future/aware hes 62 and lives for work. Hes becoming defensive and sees you as the threat (part of a perceived threat).

Ps. If it is the above, just understand it (we will be in the same situation possibly one day) and work round it. Dont let him bully you though, just ask for a word in private if he continues and to be honest you shouldnt pre-judge him on his personal life.

A friend of mine works for an Accountancy firm who recently decided to shed loads of staff in the cruelist possible way. A colleague of his had been with the company for over 30yrs. Lived and breathed his job in almost a Japanese way (my friends words) …….and the company sacked him- found a way of getting out of paying a large redundancy package.

Speak to someone in HR and get them to sort it out? Or a line manager?

Although it may sound like I’m prejudging him on his personal life, I honestly feel it’s none of my business. What grates is when he tries to make a point becuase I want to get home to see my daughter before she goes to bed and refuse to drive to work at 2pm on a sunday afternoon to stay over in case it snows overnight when I can work perfectly well from home.

Wait until you’re both alone then..

tell him that you think he is very attractive but up until now you have always found him quite intimidating, say that you are really encouraged that he’s taking an interest in you, then give him a slow wink?

he’ll ether run a mile or you’ll have a considerably larger problem!

hey perhaps grounds for a sexual harassment case? 😆