So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New

Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for

free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!

Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Alison Beer. Work can be challenging

for lots of reasons. Deadlines to meet, bugs to fix, profit margins to hit. But most of

us have probably come to realize that what makes or breaks a professional experience is

people. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, our own habits and hang-ups, and we're

lucky if we find colleagues we gel with. Invariably though, you're going to encounter a

boss, peer, or direct report that isn't at all fun to work with. They're very difficult.

Today's guest has spent a lot of time thinking about the best ways to deal with these kinds

of co-workers, how to identify them, engage with them, and how to manage yourself through

the conflict. Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at HBR. She wrote the new book, Getting

Along, How to Work with Anyone, Even Difficult People, and the HBR article, How to Navigate

Conflict with a Co-worker.

Hey Amy, hi Alison. So happy to have you on the show. I'm happy to be here. You are not

a difficult co-worker. You're one of my favorites. Thank you. And likewise, I never find you

difficult.

So in a world where we are increasingly trying to not label people, can we really pinpoint

certain individuals as being, quote, unquote, difficult?

Oh, I'm so glad you asked this first because I have mixed feelings about the use of the

archetypes in the book. You know, there are eight archetypes. They are personalities

that we all recognize, the passive-aggressive peer, the biased co-worker, the insecure manager.

...