Sneaky, Selfish Colleague? Are You Working With An Egotist?

Working with an egotist is a challenge on a daily basis. If you’ve never worked with one, lucky you.

If you have, you have hopefully learnt how best to deal with them. But if not, find out how to identify the egotist in your workplace – and get wise to the sneaky tricks they use every day to help them get to their “rightful” place in their job.

Firstly, a great definition of an egotist is someone who believes the world revolves around them. In general they

• must be the centre of attention at all times
• have a tendency to exaggerate to impress
• are selfish
• truly believe they are far better than everyone else

Have you met one or two in your time? Here are some signs that you’re working with an egotist.

1. Little Prince/Princess Syndrome

Many egotists act as though the world owes them a living. They may have been thoroughly spoilt as a child and given every little thing they ever wanted.

In the workplace they really don’t understand why anyone would expect them to do any mundane job – they’re far too important for that. And if they’re asked to do some filing or tidy the shared kitchen, they’ll make a hash of it on purpose as they have no intention of being asked to do it again.

2. Directing Attention Back To Them

Ever been in a team meeting when someone butts in and starts talking about a great project they’ve just finished / a job offer they got / an email from a head hunter – or anything which proves how jolly important they are?

No matter that the team were discussing plans for the forthcoming month. The egotist has had enough time discussing tedious work, and thinks it’s about time that 100% of the attention was focused back on them.

3. Trampling People Underfoot

The egotist will trample over anyone in their way as they forge forward in the workplace. They will simple ignore the team’s suggestion if they don’t think it’s as good as their own, and just go on their own merry way. They will try to get their work seen in preference to that of their colleagues’, even if that means shoving a colleague’s report to the bottom of the reading pile on the boss’s desk.

No matter if feelings are hurt or tempers get frayed, the egotist really doesn’t notice the consequences of their own actions, because life is all about them.

4. Being Sneaky And Manipulative

They will constantly try to take important work off others. They want the juiciest jobs for themselves, so they can shine, shine, shine and everyone can see how absolutely fabulous they are.

Oh and they do it in such a nice, sneaky way:

“I could see you were busy, so I told the boss you wouldn’t be able to deal with this project – so I’m doing it now,” she / he will gloat self-importantly.

5. Passing Work Off As Their Own

Nothing is too low for the egotist. If a great piece of work is presented to the bosses, the egotist will give the impression it was all their own work whenever possible, without giving an ounce of credit to the co-workers who were part of the team.

6. Sucking Up To Management

An egotist always manages to bump into the CEO at the coffee machine, and be assured, this is no chance element. They will be constantly on the lookout for people who they think have power in the workplace and will sidle up to them at any opportunity, to discuss their latest idea, to mention how wonderful they are and to try to strike up a friendship.

7. Being Thick Skinned

Regardless of how many times their boss explains they don’t have the skills to run a big project, or that they simply must try harder to work as a strong team member, any criticism is like water off a duck’s back.

Yeah, they hear what the boss is saying – of course they do. But deep down they know the boss is wrong because their sense of self worth is so great, they can’t work out how anyone can see fault in what they do. And they will just continue to work in exactly the same way they always have.

8. Being Jealous

The egotist is extremely jealous of co-workers who get promoted above them and can’t even find the words to congratulate them. Why? because of course the egotist believes that promotion should have been theirs.

9. Back Stabbing

The egotist will always be looking for ways to take their colleagues down a peg or two – preferably in the eyes of top management. They may apologetically mention to their boss that Stella in Marketing is struggling with finalising the new campaign, and how worried they are about her stress levels.

Job done – the boss will start to watch Stella like a hawk and may even begin to wonder if she’s right for the job.

By sowing seeds of doubt about their co-workers, the egostist hopes to clear the way forward for themselves so they can rise like a phoenix from the ashes, to take their rightful role as Vice President, or even better, CEO.

10. Exaggerating A.K.A Telling Lies

It’s very important to the egotist that everyone sees how wonderful they are. And if they have to embellish stories of their achievements, so be it.

So you may find yourself listening to the egotist telling you many unbelievable stories – and don’t believe them! Egotists live in fantasy land, so at best their stories are an exaggeration, at worst plain lies.

Such as how they came top at university, and were head hunted by 2 or 3 big recruitment agencies straight away. [Unfortunately they had to turn down the jobs because they weren’t precisely what they wanted / were abroad / didn’t pay enough.]

Not bad going for someone with zero experience in the workplace!

If you work with an egotist, it’s never going to be easy. But if you are aware of all the sneaky tricks they try to pull off, at least you can be better prepared to deal with them in the workplace!