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10 Signs Your Coworker Is Threatened by You

BY
Andrew Langat
July 18, 2024
A concerned-looking office worker stared at a colleague's project.
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If you are excelling at work, you may encounter a noticeable change in a coworker's behavior towards you.

These feelings might be down to simple workplace jealousy or a fear that you might surpass their accomplishments at work.

These feelings are deeply rooted in the human condition.

Having a jealous coworker is inevitable – but a jealous coworker could negatively impact your work performance and even derail your career.

Consequently, you need to cultivate skills to help you spot signs that a coworker feels threatened by you.

Once you recognize your coworker feels threatened, you can take steps to address and resolve workplace tensions.

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Signs Your Coworker Is Threatened by You

Is a coworker constantly undermining your work or going out of their way to avoid you?

These might be signs they feel threatened by your skills and achievements.

Signs Your Coworker is threatened by you

1. Taking Credit for Your Work

The first sign that someone is threatened by you is they try to take credit for your work.

The threatened coworker will try to steal credit for team effort and try to come out on top. They may even try to create a competitive environment if your workplace is collaborative.

Here are some ways a threatened coworker might try to take credit for your work:

They pass off your ideas as their own.

The threatened coworker might present your ideas as their own.

For instance, they might speak at meetings about ideas without mentioning you or your contributions.

You can address this by documenting your efforts and ideas using emails or other equivalent communication methods.

They might try to take over your projects.

When a coworker feels threatened by your work, they might try to take over your projects and pass them off as their own.

If this fails, they might try to join projects midway and take credit for your work.

To address this, keep meticulous records of project milestones and constantly update other coworkers and your management or supervisors.

They might plagiarize reports.

This is a desperate measure but some coworkers might resort to plagiarizing reports and documents.

In this scenario, you must be vigilant and ensure that written reports are signed off in your name. Additionally, use version control systems for documents where possible.

They might capitalize on your absence.

Absences at work are unavoidable and this presents an obvious opportunity for a threatened coworker to take credit for your work.

They might wait for scheduled absences such as vacations to claim your work as theirs.

To protect your work, do the following:

  • Document your work and update your team and boss before you leave.
  • Communicate transparently to solidify your record of contributions.
  • Seek support from colleagues.
  • Use collaborative tools such as project management software.

2. The Silent Treatment

Silent treatment is an obvious sign your coworkers feel threatened. It curtails collaboration and leads to a deterioration in productivity.

Getting over this barrier could be difficult, but you must handle the silent treatment with professionalism and empathy.

Here are some ways to handle the silent treatment from coworkers feeling threatened:

  • Remain professional and do not succumb to negative emotions or reactions.
  • Calmly initiate communications.
  • Encourage other coworkers to share feelings and concerns.
  • Show empathy by actively listening without interruptions.
  • Involve a mediator if direct communication is not possible.
  • Strengthen your work relationships to mitigate the impact of one coworker's behavior.

3. Passive Aggressive Behavior

Passive aggressive behavior by a coworker could be difficult to recognize. This phenomenon encompasses a range of behaviors that could degrade an existing working relationship.

Here are some examples of passive-aggressive behavior:

  1. Unhelpful communication: This includes tactics such as backhanded compliments, indirect communication, or sarcasm.
  2. Delaying tactics: When a coworker is threatened by your progress, they might use delay tasks deliberately to derail important projects.
  3. Sabotage: Subtle sabotage such as intentional errors is one of the most obvious signs your coworker is threatened by you.
  4. Malicious compliance: Coworkers who feel threatened might agree to tasks but intentionally carry them out in a way that negatively impacts performance.

To address and mitigate the effects of passive-aggressive behavior, do the following:

  • Keep your composure and respond professionally.
  • Address passive-aggressive behavior directly.
  • Set clear deadlines for tasks.
  • Document instances of passive-aggressive behavior in case the situation escalates.
  • Involve a mediator, such as your human resources department.

4. Lack of Eye Contact

When a coworker feels threatened by you, they might avoid looking at you even when speaking directly to you.

It is important to remember that while this is one of the signs your coworker is threatened by you, it could also be a sign of discomfort or insecurity.

They might feel discomfort about the balance of power that exists between you and them or feel insecurity about your accomplishments at work – or their own.

Whatever the reason, it is important to understand this behavior and develop strategies to address it.

Here are some ways to deal with a colleague who won't make eye contact:

  1. Create a supportive environment: Make yourself approachable and create an environment where everyone feels heard. A supportive environment will make the workplace less threatening.
  2. Engage in rapport-building activities at work: This could include showing genuine interest in other projects beyond your own, engaging in casual conversations, or offering praise where appropriate.
  3. Use friendly body language: Smile, nod, and use every non-verbal tool to make your coworkers feel comfortable talking to you.
  4. Provide constructive feedback: Show your coworker that you are interested in their professional development.
  5. Lead by example: Set a good example of how professional communication should be done.
  6. Promote team building: A sense of camaraderie with your coworkers will help you break down barriers to communication and professional collaboration.  

5. Manipulation

Manipulation by a coworker could be one of the worst things to happen to your professional development.

It comes in many ways but the objective of manipulation remains the same: to destroy your work environment and devalue your contributions to the organization.

Types of manipulative behavior:

  • Gaslighting: This behavior is meant to deny your experiences and make you feel insecure about yourself. This manipulation tactic will make you question your own behavior, memory, and perception of events.
  • Misinformation: Tactics such as spreading rumors fall under the umbrella of misinformation. The objective of spreading misinformation is to undermine you as a professional.
  • Undermining: This manipulative tactic is often two-pronged. The coworker will undermine you by withholding important information while feeding you inaccurate details. They may also constantly criticize you in front of others while portraying themselves as the victim. This is a divide-and-conquer tactic meant to isolate you from your team.
  • Excessive flattery: Excessive flattery could be an indication that your coworker feels threatened and wants to manipulate your actions.

How To Deal With Manipulative Behavior At Work:

  • Establish boundaries regarding acceptable professional behavior and communicate this to everyone.
  • To fight misinformation, ask for clarification from multiple sources.
  • Build a strong professional network to help you recognize and fight manipulation.
  • Stay focused on facts and only base your reactions on evidence.
  • Keep your actions and communication transparent.  

6. Microaggressions

Microaggressions are difficult to deal with since they are subtle and often unintentional. However, they can be hurtful and demeaning.

Recognizing Microaggressions

Given the subtle nature of microaggressions, they could be difficult to detect and mitigate. Here are some examples of microaggressions:

  • Verbal: Hard to detect insults, backhanded compliments, or jokes that target your personality.
  • Non-verbal: Defensive body language such as eye rolls, crossed arms, and other body language or movements meant to make you feel uncomfortable.
  • Environmental: Activities that make the work environment toxic for you. These are often not limited to one coworker and can include things like spreading false rumors.

How to deal with microaggressions:

  • Keep your emotions in check and only respond professionally.
  • Document incidents of microaggressions.
  • If you feel uncomfortable, address the behaviors directly and if possible, involve other colleagues.
  • If the microaggressions escalate, involve your human resources department and present your documented evidence.

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7. They Refuse To Help

This is one of the most extreme reactions by a coworker who feels threatened. It is a clear sign that your professional relationship has fallen apart and you need to take action.

It might be frustrating to deal with such a situation, but if your colleagues start excluding you from workplace activity and refuse to participate in your initiatives, it could result in poor work performance and missed targets.

You must first understand their behavior and then develop a strategy to deal with their actions.

Your coworker might refuse to help you to prevent you from overshadowing them or to maintain their control.

Additionally, they might refuse to help due to concerns about job security or reputation.

To address these issues, do the following:

How to deal with a coworker who refuse to help you at work:

  • Assess the situation and figure out exactly why they don't want to help you.
  • Initiate private and respectful communication with your coworker.
  • Acknowledge their feelings and show empathy.
  • Discuss roles, responsibilities, and expectations to deal with the anxieties of being overshadowed.
  • Reassure your coworker that your objective is to accomplish tasks together and not to compete.
  • Find the middle ground where each of you can contribute to the organization without interference.

8. Body Language

Body language says a lot about a person and for a threatened coworker, it can give you an early warning that all is not well.

By being vigilant, you can identify negative body language and take steps to alleviate their discomfort.

Here are some body language cues that can suggest your coworker feels threatened:

Non-verbal cues that signal a threatened coworker:

  • Avoidance Behaviors

The most immediate example of avoidance behaviors is lack of eye contact, but other behaviors, such as standing or sitting far away from you and turning away when you wish to engage with them may also be present.

  • Defensive Posture or Body Language

A coworker feeling threatened will often interact with you while in a defensive posture.

This includes things like keeping their arms crossed, tense jaws, clenched fists, legs crossed tightly, or hands tucked away from you.

  • Nervous Body Language

Nervous body language includes excessive sweating, blushing, or fidgeting.

  • Irregular Voice and Speech Pattern

A speech pattern that is too fast or too slow can be a subtle indicator that your coworker is nervous.  

How To Respond:

  • Initiate private communications to address any misunderstandings or concerns.
  • Show your coworkers that you see and value them as team members instead of competitors.
  • Use positive body language to demonstrate openness and to show you are approachable.  

9. Spreading Rumors About You

Finding out someone spread rumors about you can be alarming. This is a classic sign of a threatened individual.  

It can be difficult not to get entangled in workplace gossip. After all, people like receiving and spreading rumors.

You only have to look at the dozens of gossip sites on the internet to understand the huge appetite we have for discussing the lives of others.

While harmless in some other cases, workplace gossip can be quite hurtful – and harmful.

To fight this, you must know why rumors started and how to curtail the spread.

Rumors start because people want and need to be in the know. It is a way for people to feel important. In most cases, a coworker will start a rumor to gain more power.

It makes them feel important to know things other people don't.

To prevent rumors, keep everyone informed on what's happening in the organization. This means who was fired, who is getting a transfer, and every other development that could result in rumors.

When your organization goes through a rough patch, keep all communication channels open. Be transparent and share information even when you are faced with hurdles.

All this will keep rumors from starting or spreading.

If a particularly damaging rumor is spread about you, you may need to talk to your manager or HR for support.

10. Increased Competition

A competitive spirit at work is great and in most cases results in more productivity. But a sudden change to an overly competitive demeanor is a sign that your coworker feels threatened.

They might become more competitive to outshine you or to solidify their position if they think they might lose it.

Increased competition could come in various ways including:

  • Staying longer hours, beyond the norm, and increasing output.
  • Seeking visibility by volunteering for high-profile projects.
  • Increased networking activity to solidify their position.
  • In more negative cases, they might undermine others.
  • They could aggressively pursue limited resources.
  • They might withhold information to maintain a competitive advantage.

When faced with such a coworker, it is important not to feel threatened. If your coworker is threatened, do not respond in kind. Maintain your professionalism and take the following steps:

  • Focus on your objectives, even when faced with criticism.
  • Document your work to keep a detailed record of your achievements.
  • Stay positive by believing in your abilities.
  • Show empathy by understanding that your coworker's behavior might stem from low self-esteem.
  • Celebrate and highlight team achievements rather than individual efforts.

Inspiring, isn’t it ? Want to learn more about connecting self-awareness to professional development? Get in touch today.
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Are you tired of workplace drama and yearning for a positive workplace?

While you cannot control if your coworker feels threatened by you, working with a coach – virtually or in person – will give you valuable tools to navigate the ups and downs of a challenging workplace.

Let Highrise guide you and help you build better work relationships.

Contact us today and start investing in your work happiness!

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AUTHOR
Andrew Langat
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Andrew Langat is an experienced content specialist in Leadership, Productivity, Education, Fintech, and Research. He is an avid reader and loves swimming as a hobby. He believes that quality content should be actionable and helpful.