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PROGRAM D-8320
Are toxic coworkers driving you crazy? Let me share with you some closing thoughts that have been helpful to me in dealing with toxic coworkers.
Remember that workplaces will be workplaces; people will be people. In most work places, you have a lot of different personalities thrown into one cauldron during working hours. Drama, power struggles, office politics, and other unpleasant things are going to happen, at least to some extent. It’s not that you just settle for these types of situations, but you shouldn’t be shocked to discover that in a sin-infected world, there are toxic people to deal with.
In Philip Yancey’s book, Reaching for the Invisible God, he advises that it is easier to act your way into feelings than to feel your way into actions. In other words, do what you know is right to do and let the feelings follow, if they will. If you wait on your feelings to kick in before you do what you know you should do—especially when it comes to dealing with difficult people—you’ll be in wait-mode many days, if you’re like me!
John wrote, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16b). “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). This kind of love is an action, not a feeling. It is a decision not a desire. Sometimes the feelings are present; sometimes they are not. Either way, if we live in God, we must live in love.
One of the greatest indications that we truly “live in God” and are new creations in Christ Jesus is our willingness to extend this God-love to people who would have no claim on our love otherwise. After all, these toxic coworkers can’t expect you to love them, can they? It’s not in your job description and no one can demand it from you.
Therefore, when you choose to love in actions and truth, you show a loveless world a little sample of what Jesus is like. You become the love of God reaching out to them—unconditional love, which cannot be explained or ignored. It is powerful in its implications and effects on the relationships of our lives.
One small verse in 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us that “Love never fails” (I Corinthians 13:8). When nothing else works, try love. When there seems to be no way to improve a relationship, try love. Love never fails.