I work in a production department in my organisation which comprises 14 people. One of my team members has a very bad habit of criticizing me and it seems that he wants to snub me on every little thing. He loves to give useless advice on almost everything I do. He believes that his way is right.
How do I deal with my team member ‘professionally’? I know him from 3.5 years now. It’s not that he is new on the team, he is a very old employee of the company and a few months back we started to work on a project together. I’ve had good personal relations with him and never had any problem with him until he started to work with me on a team.
Now, Should I answer him back strictly and tell him to mind his own work and don’t make comments on my work(so that he backs off once and for all) or should I do nothing?
Be careful. Take a close look at what you’re doing and achieving and make sure your work is up to scratch. He can’t complain if he has nothing to complain about.
If he’s not your manager and he continues to make things up in order to criticise you, tell him to stop. If you feel you’re still being targeted, take it up with your manager. This is something that a quick word from your manager to him should make an end to.
Make sure he’s not correct in what he is saying though. Constructive criticism should be taken seriously, and when someone criticised me, I would check it out thoroughly rather than just decide they had a personal issue. Confrontational or inane criticism is different, and you need to stand up for yourself before you get a reputation as someone who is always being told off and therefore probably incompetent. I have seen people get this label and eventually lose their job.