I Feel Like My Coworkers Don’t Like Me – What Can I Do?

Relations between coworkers are the subject of many sitcoms and comedy movies.

How can they not be when many comical situations are possible in that environment, but you don’t find it funny.

You know that one guy in those sitcoms that all the coworkers hate?

You’re that guy!

Why do you feel that your coworkers don’t like you? Because they avoid talking to you, gossip about you, and exclude you from their social circles, but also because you don’t like them either.

Dealing with bad coworkers can be stressful, but stop and think who is to blame for that situation?

Do you do your job well and mind your own business, but somehow they find ways to dislike you? 

Or it’s a little bit of your fault that they don’t like you?

This is the topic that we will explain in this article.

8 Reasons Why Your Coworkers Don’t Like You

Relationships between people are complex, but relationships between colleagues are incredibly complicated.

You’re all strangers to each other when you meet, you’re put in the same space, and you have to work together to earn a paycheck.

No matter how different you are personally, professionally, and privately, you must work together and be productive.

Of course, some disagreements will happen here, but you feel like you are somehow always the black sheep in the office.

Here’s why:

1. You Are a Low Performer

It makes the most sense that your colleagues will hate you if you don’t do your job properly.

If you’re obviously lazy and disinterested, they’ll probably wonder why you even work there.

Are you the last to arrive at work and the first to leave?

You also always find ways to slack off during work hours.

Your colleagues have noticed that your performance is terrible, and how could it not be when you’re playing video games on your phone and checking Instagram while everyone else is working.

In addition to affecting your own performance at work with your laziness, you may also affect your colleagues.

Many jobs are team-based, and if one team member doesn’t do their part well, everyone will feel the consequences.

No wonder they hate you if that is the case.

2. Your Colleagues Are Jealous of You

We’ll assume you do your job flawlessly.

In addition, you love what you do and are happy at work.

You mind your own business and respect your colleagues.

But your colleagues hate you because they are jealous of you, and you make them feel small.

You may have just joined the company and already made a great impression and progressed more than some who have been there for a long time.

Of course, the jealousy of colleagues will follow because not everyone can bear the success of others, especially if it threatens them.

3. Your Values Don’t Match

You came to the company with the desire to concentrate only on work rather than making friends, but that is impossible with your new colleagues.

Companies love to point out how all their employees are like one big happy family.

And your colleagues took it literally, except that they are a toxic family.

Business and private life should not be mixed at work? Tell that your colleagues.

With them, gossip flies everywhere, and they poke their noses into other people’s lives.

They also don’t shy away from oversharing things from their private lives.

The situation is even worse for you because you don’t like to talk too much about yourself, but that doesn’t stop colleagues from asking you private questions.

Because of them, you always have to know who is hooking up with whom.

You also know all about their family members who annoy them at home.

And not only that, but you also know their families personally, because your colleagues have no problem bringing them to work.

Not to mention how your colleagues are two-faced persons.

Your colleagues can talk the worst about someone when he is not present and when he is there to praise him.

They especially behave like that when it comes to bosses.

What annoys you about your colleagues is that they force socializing after work.

As if watching them at work all day is not enough for you, but also afterward.

Why hang out? Why unnecessary socialization when everything is toxic anyway?

You don’t understand them because you just don’t fit in.

4. You Are The Office Slob

Nobody likes messy people, especially in a common area.

Are you the one whose workplace is always a mess?

Papers are everywhere, and when someone asks you for a document, it’s hard to find it, and if you do find it, there’s a possibility that coffee was spilled on it.

We won’t talk too much about the contents of your drawers.

We’ll just say that a unique ecosystem of fungi developed there because you were throwing food scraps.

As for personal hygiene, let’s say you could improve it because no one likes a stinky person next to them, including your colleagues.

It’s not a problem for you to come to work sick, even though everyone tells you not to.

5. You Are Too Negative or Too Positive

You complain about too much work, too little work, the bad weather outside, the world economic crisis…

There is always a dark cloud of negativity around you.

Negativity is transitory and can be too overwhelming for others.

As with excessive negativity, excessive positivity is not well received. 

Especially if it’s too fake. 

Problems in the company are everywhere, everyone is nervous, and you are unprovoked optimistic, and hum happy songs.

6. You Do Everything to Get a Better Position at Work

Do you remember at school those who always raised their hand to everything the teachers asked?

You kept that mentality at work too.

In addition, it is not a problem for you to snitch on your colleagues to the boss that they need to do better.

Do you know what they say about someone who would step over dead bodies to succeed? You’re that guy.

You have no problem appropriating someone else’s credit for a well-done job and presenting it as your own.

7. You Think You Are Better Than Others

And you don’t shy away from showing it.

You consider yourself more successful than your colleagues in business and life in general.

All your colleagues should listen to you to succeed in life according to you.

You are probably also a contrarian, and you like to always have the opposite opinion of your colleagues.

Know that nobody likes such people, so don’t be surprised that your colleagues can’t stand you.

8. You Are a Control Freak

Maybe you take your job seriously and want everything to be in order all the time, but you’re overdoing it.

You have to control everything and make drama when you fall out of your routine.

First, you don’t let others take responsibility because you want to do everything yourself, and then when something doesn’t go well, you complain.

You expect everyone to follow you in this, and you get angry at colleagues who think you are over-controlling.

Obvious Signs That Coworkers Don’t Like You

You’ve long thought that your colleagues don’t like you, and here are some signs that confirm it:

• They avoid talking to you;
• they often exclude you from conversations with others as if you did not exist;
• when you enter the office, they suddenly stop talking. Yes, it is what you think; you were gossiped about;
• they have a passive-aggressive attitude toward you;
• they take things off your desk without asking;
• they do little things on purpose to annoy you;
• They tell your boss what a lousy employee you are.

FAQ

What to Do if Your Colleagues Dislike You?

Ask yourself first: “Am I here to make friends or to work?”

You don’t have to be friends with your colleagues, which doesn’t mean you can’t function well together.

Don’t gossip about your colleagues, reveal too much of your private life, be overly controlling, and similar.

Instead, do everything to be a good and decent colleague who respects everyone and doesn’t put other people down.

It is up to them to respect that.

Is it Terrible to Quit My Job Because of My Colleagues?

It is not uncommon for someone to quit because of bad colleagues. 

You spend a lot of time with those people. 

If they bother you too much and you know things cannot change, then it’s better to quit.

They don’t respect you, and you think it’s not the place for you. 

Quitting is not horrible, even if you almost got the job.

Sometimes the energies don’t match, and you quickly realize that you don’t belong somewhere.

Why Do My Female Colleagues Hate Me?

If your female colleagues at work hate you, you clearly cross some boundaries of decent behavior.

Maybe it doesn’t seem that way because you haven’t physically touched any female colleague.

But rude gestures and constant flirting without consent are enough to make someone feel uncomfortable.

And for all your overly sexual jokes, know that no matter how funny they are to you, they are not humorous to others, so stop with them.

To Summarize,

You don’t go to work for your colleagues, and you don’t work for them, so you shouldn’t worry too much about their opinion. 

However, that doesn’t mean you have to put up with an overly toxic atmosphere at work. 

Do what you can to be a decent colleague, and if you can’t put up with them, change your job. 

You certainly don’t want your job to turn into an episode of a sitcom about bad colleagues.