Anonymous Answer

I have found that people with poor communication skills who was the most difficult to work with. Usually, I do not hesitate to respectfully approach them about concerns if the problem persists, I would approach the proper chain of command.

Anonymous Answer

People who aren't proactive or those that don't work as a team. Also, the type of personality that keeps to themself and tries to do their work and then leave. We spend so much of our time at work we need to be proactive and helpful towards each other. It fosters a much nicer working environment and in turn, happier colleagues if teamwork is an innate skill of your co-workers.

Anonymous Answer

I found it challenging to work with people who are negligent and like to cut corners. I have worked with a colleague who does not appreciate the importance of our work and constantly tries to cut corners. For example, they would not examine patients properly during ward rounds or not take a thorough history on admission. I found it difficult to trust the colleague and as a result, I had to constantly stay back to revisit the task that he had done. I have tried to discuss the matter with him privately in a respectful way. Unfortunately, his behavior has not changed. Due to the concern that his behavior may pose a risk to patient safety, I have escalated the matter to the attending physician.

Anonymous Answer

I have worked in many team settings during residency training and hospitalist jobs and I have been quite flexible and adaptable to work with which I believe is very important for quality and productive teamwork. In terms of a difficult personality, I believe it's difficult to work with someone who does not understand and fulfill their responsibilities in a timely manner. Also, I believe in sharing knowledge and do not hesitate to ask questions if in doubt, especially regarding patient care and safety. I have encountered some people during training who would get upset when I would disturb their sleep on a night call as an intern for patient questions. It was somewhat hard to cope with as a new intern but fortunately, I had another extremely supportive senior and I am grateful for the learning he provided during that rotation as I was able to manage my subsequent night floats with more confidence and I inculcated the same practice for my junior residents.

Anonymous Answer

I am usually able to work and be in a team with people with different personalities; however, people and colleagues with not very good communication skills are challenging to work with. I would like to mention an example of one of my colleagues who had excellent clinical skills and knowledge but his communication skills were suboptimal, specifically, he used to speak very fast and not communicate all his thoughts. I approached this colleague and discussed this point with him, he advised that this has been raised by multiple other colleagues. He thought that he speaks fast to cover for his accent, I reassured him that I do not find his accent difficult to comprehend and that he should be conscious and practice speaking slower, one more advice was to check with others if what he said was easy to understand. After a few months, he thanked me because he found that he was communicating easier with others and this helped him to pass his clinical examination where he had to use his verbal communication skills.

Anonymous Answer

I am ENFP by personality type and am open to collaborating with all personality types. I have learned from some of my introverted friends that extroverts can be very exhausting. Over the years and especially over the pandemic, I have explored the introverted portion of myself and thus I can develop meaningful connections without much energy expenditure from my introverted colleagues.