Does that guy really bother you?

As a consultant, you get a unique array of seating arrangements.  It’s rare for a client to give their consultants a corner office with a view.  About the only corner office you’ll get is the cubicle in a high traffic area.

In most cases, a consultant is seated in a project room with a number of people; fellow consultants, competing consultants and client employees.  I’ve sat in team rooms with a few as four people, to large ones with as many as fifteen.

Dealing with personalities

And along with that, I’ve had to deal with my share of personality types.  When you work that closely with anyone, you begin to notice how many time they smack their lips when they talk, or any other annoying habits.  There are ones who talk too much and some just too loud.  Someone in the room is so positive and upbeat you can hardly stand to be in the same room with them before you get your first cup of coffee.  Meanwhile, negative Nate can find a way to ruin your greatest day.

There are many types of people a consultant has to learn to deal with.  And many a night, I’ve come home and complained about one person or another that had bothered me all day long.

Letting him bother you

But at some point in my career, I made the realization that they didn’t actually bother me.  They weren’t doing anything intentionally to bother me.  I was, in fact, allowing them to bother me.

There may not be any such thing as a perfect job.  No matter how much you love what you do, you will have issues and challenges.  There will always be some aspects that are undesirable.  It becomes a cost-benefit decision for you.  Is the cost of dealing with this aspect that I don’t like, worth it for the aspects that I do like?

See my related post: Are You Contagious?

I’ve made the decision that the annoying people were worth dealing with for the benefits of the job.  Coming to the realization that I had to allow people to bother me for them to really bother me enabled me to ignore those little idiosyncrasies and let things roll off of my back.   Ear buds come in hand pretty often also.

If you would like to learn more about working in consulting, get Lew’s book Consulting 101: 101 Tips for Success in Consulting at Amazon.com

As always, I welcome your comments and criticisms.