We all have people in our lives that we don’t really like.
Unfortunately in the workplace, you may be dealing with some of these people.
They could be coworkers or staff that were in the department before you joined, a vendor, government official, and/or senior leaders.
For me, it is not a person that I don’t like but instead it is a groundhog (also known as a woodchuck).
I am an avid gardener, and I look forward every spring to planting the veggies that I grow by seed.
I also splurge and buy a few other vegetable plants like heirloom and chocolate tomato plants.
Last year I had an unwanted visitor in my backyard.
This groundhog liked to pop its head up between my fence and my raised bed to say “hello”. To me, it was like whack-a-mole because it would torment my dog, Willy.
One Sunday this groundhog decided it wanted to peruse the rest of my backyard forgetting there is a ferocious terrier who views his property as his kingdom.
One thing led to another and the next thing I see is Willy grabbing the groundhog by the neck and doing zoomies all around the yard.
After spraying water on both of them, I was able to grab Willy to put him in the house and the groundhog went under my porch.
Don’t worry! I had an animal control officer come to my house the next day to make sure this animal was not under my porch any longer and/or was not injured. We never saw him again….I thought.
This year my tomatoes were growing very nicely but I noticed that there were big bites taken out of four of my heirloom tomatoes. 
There were also two big holes around my gate.
Ugh! I am not sure it was the same one or a distant cousin or maybe its aunt, but some groundhog was dining on my garden.
One day it also had the gall to hiss at Willy so now it was war.
I sprinkled cayenne pepper all around the plants hoping this would help but now a cucumber has been its’ breakfast.
This saga is obviously going to continue.
When I present to business leaders in my corporate trainings, I always address the topic of conflict.
I talk about the fact that you may not like a person you have a conflict with, but you must figure out how to at least respect them.
To do this, try to figure out their value to the organization or they just dress well or they drive a cool car.
Whatever it is, you must almost hyper focus on that trait so you can interact with this person effectively.
So what value do groundhogs have?
I googled it to learn that groundhogs “play a crucial role in soil health through burrowing, which aerates and mixes the soil, bringing nutrient-rich soil to the surface”.
Although I see my groundhog as a toxic garden coworker, I guess it is helping me have a better yard so I can respect it for doing that.
Take a moment and think about those that irk you in some way.
How are you going to deal with them moving forward?
Unless you or they leave the company, you are stuck with these people so how are you going to make the best of it?
Avoiding them can take a lot of effort so it is better to develop some strategies and “go to” phrases when you have to work with them.
As an example, if they are the type that keep asking you to help them just say “no”.
Most people don’t realize that “no” is a complete sentence. There is no need to explain yourself.
Or maybe they are constant complainers so turn the tables on them and give them a compliment.
Others may lack a good work ethic, so they are always late with information or reports that you need.
In that case, start documenting it even if they are only a few hours late. This way you have facts when you need to either confront them directly or inform a higher-up.
Whatever you do, don’t take it too personally. 
In many cases, these “groundhogs” in the workplace are just not happy individuals.
It is not your mission to change their mindset. The only thing you can do is change your behaviors in how you deal with them.
In my case, I threw the rest of the cucumber that it partially ate in the hole where it usually pops up so it can have a snack later. Hopefully it will appreciate my thoughtfulness.