Have you ever had to work with a difficult colleague? How did you handle that situation?
"During my years in college, I worked in the deli at a large grocery store in town. During most shifts, we worked in a team of three people. One co-worker that I had regularly scheduled shifts with was definitely not pulling his weight on the team. When no customers were at the counter, we had other duties to complete like cleaning and salad and other food preparation. Rather than helping, he would get on his phone and text his friends or play video games. First, I addressed him directly about the issue, and he flat out refused to listen to me. After another shift of this occurring, I took the issue directly to our supervisor, who handled it with the employee. It turns out I wasn't the first employee to bring the issue up to her."
"The most difficult colleague that I had to work with was a few years back. He joined our team during major transitions where we were implementing a new EMR and were going through an organizational buy out. The difficult part about the new colleague was that he was not receptive to the training program or the ideas that I would try to bring to him to help make him more successful on the job. He brought many years of experience when he joined our team, and over time, I learned that he was bringing a lot of habits from his old job to his new one. My approach to this person was to listen to his thoughts on things and learn why he thought his methods were the right way. By hearing him out, I was able to give my point of view. In the end, he adopted some of my suggestions while holding on to others of his own. I fully understood that these compromises worked out better in the end, and he realized that I was only trying to help him be successful with a new organization."
As a Respiratory Therapist, you work with a wide variety of colleagues. From nurses, physicians, administrators, and fellow therapists, you will encounter many people throughout your workday, and working with a difficult person has to come second nature to you. Give a specific example of a time that you had to work with a difficult colleague. Try to highlight how you positively handled the situation. By demonstrating that you can handle conflict with ease, your interviewer will see that you can work with various people, including difficult ones.
"In my current job, one person on my team tends to bring a lot of their issues from outside of work into the workplace. Being such a tight-knit team, at first, I found it very difficult to work with her. As we got to know each other better, I began conversing with her when she was bringing up her home issues and letting them affect her work and our team. I explained that it sounded like being at work should be a good respite for her. And slowly, she became much better to work with and a much more tolerable co-worker."
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