I share an office space with my coworker. When we get along, he's very talkative, to the point it's very distracting. He finds a lot of issues with my company's products, and since I'm well seasoned there, comes to me and expects me to drop what I'm doing to help him fact heck and investigate the issues. I don't mind helping him, but I have my own stuff going on.
When we don't get along, it usually has to do with him having a personal issue with me. He doesn't own up to his own mistakes and lashes out when called out. For example, I am in charge of a big platform at my company and needed him to provide certain assets for it. To be clear, we are NOT equally in charge of this, but he thinks he is. He gave me a lot of incorrect and inconsistent information. I vetoed the rest of his assets because I was fact checking and fixing too many mistakes. I went to our supervisor to explain why his assets weren't usable and finalized my files. My coworker then called a meeting with me saying everything he gave me should not have prevented me from doing my job correctly and it sounded like I was using him as a scapegoat for my own failure to finish the project in time. I retaliate with “If X coworker gave me the wrong assets, I would not let them in my file. Same goes for you.” After FORTY MINUTES of back and forth, he finally revealed he was upset because I tattled on him. He only calmed down when I stroked his ego and said how much I still valued the work he does and that we'll plan the next one better together. After that, he acted like nothing was wrong and worked with me again like normal.
Last month, he left work early because our bosses were out of the building. We share a space together, so when he got in trouble for it, of course I knew about it. I didn't tattle on him, but I believe he eventually came to the conclusion I did because he's been stand-offish, short with me, and quiet all week.
This all came to head yesterday. When I came into our office space, he was hostile about the next release of the project I'm in charge of. He fought me acting like I had to be completely done by X date so he can add his assets. Normally, I don't let other people add them themselves, but he told me previously he thought it would be easier on me if he did it and we created a plan together. Well apparently, he remembers none of those conversations, and had issues with how I had my files broken up, implying I am incompetent, falling behind, and not ready for him He kept cutting me off, talking over me, and telling me what my job is. He didn't believe me when I reminded him of our previous agreement. He was so harsh with me that I was taken aback and shaking.
In front of other people, he was nice to me and told our supervisor how swimmingly the project was coming. But alone, he either ignored me, or shouted at me to get my attention on how he hates my file set up.
At one point he questioned my file suggesting it's not up to industry standard (we are NOT the same field) and that I really need to “future” proof for my replacement. Someone in my field would not have major issues with how the file was set up, I feel he was trying to make me nervous over my job security.
I'm not sure how to handle this. He's making me uncomfortable. I did let my supervisor know a brief version and plan to go over this next week. I am not okay with working with him on this project if he's going to be hostile and try to take the reigns. Once his assets are placed, he should really be uninvolved in the future.
If this is all because he thinks I'm a tattle tail, then that's ridiculous and says more about him than me. What if he actually does something serious and gets in trouble again? Is he going to work harder to get me to quit? I don't think he's trying to get me fired since he's acting like nothing is wrong in front of our supervisor. I think he's just trying to mess with me and make me uncomfortable…and he's winning. How do I make this bother me less? I don't want to give him the satisfaction.
I don't get paid enough for this drama bullshit. I just want to coexist, get my work done, and go home.