I need advice how to handle a toxic colleague. My workplace is a very close knit community hence the peculiar specifics. The person is a man in his mid 50s who some say has mental health issues. My problem with the man is he’s disruptive to the work environment not to mention annoying. However because of the nature of our work that demands close ties we have had to condone him. Case in point, recently his wife took him to court over child support payments, theyre still married and living together btw and the woman really has no need for his money as she’s extremely wealthy but does this whenever the guy disappears from home. Now, due to this the Legal Dept,HR and even the Chief had to spend 2hrs sorting out his personal domestic tussles as the wife was about to have him locked up.
Then whenever there’s new interns the man hooks up with them bcz the wife tracks his calls and sms then the wife ends up coming to work to cause a furore and fight with interns. The case ends up at the Chief’s office.
On a personal level, the man must pass by your office every time he’s leaving the wing and bring up irrelevant and inappropriate nasty stories usually about relationships and sex,like how my boss whom I respect very much is screwing another colleague and how that colleague is generous with her goods, as in everything can go south once he’s joined the conversation, this will happen even if you’re with someone else or in a group. One day he found us discussing a female politicians and he’s like theyre all prostitutes. Or he finds us talking politics he takes over the conversation about how he knows all those big people. As in he’s a nuisance to everybody. He loves attention and is all over the place. If he gets wind of a colleagues personal problems or past failures at work that person and others will never hear the end of it. The woman working under him has the worst time bcz he bullies her no end, she’s married but he keeps asking her how many men are screwing her, if he sees her with any man he goes to HR to report her for being immoral in the workplace.
Most of us have chalked it up to putting up with a mentally unwell person whose nature is compounded by midlife crisis and marital problems but frankly its toxic especially if you’re in the same wing like me and he could easily pop into your office upto 10 Times a day. Thats alot of distraction. If you give him cold shoulder he complains that you’ve become proud and not a team player. Even the Chief puts up with alot of bullshit from this guy but for me my problem is the daily annoying disruptions, it gets on my nerves.
How do you handle such a lose Canon with tact to avoid a fallout but put him off so that his toxicity and interruptions doesnt affect your concentration and your flow and equilibrium.