Getting Along With Co-Workers

School to Work Unit 7

This unit deals with a person's attitude and ability to communicate with the people they works with. A person does not have a choice about the people he works with, so they have to be understanding of the differences in other people. They may not like everyone they work with, but they have to be able to work with all types of people.

Most people do not lose their job or leave their job because they can not perform the tasks but because they do not get along with their co-workers.

All jobs ultimately involve dealing with other people. Knowing how to get along with co-workers is essential to keeping a job. Doing so can help you avoid confrontations on the job.

working togther

 

Activities:

List things you can do to build relationships in the workplace, school and at home.

Discuss and role play how to handle distractions from co-workers, disagreements over work tasks, handling teasing, resolving personal concerns, and making and refusing requests.

Role playing social skills, on dealing with bossy people, agreeable/disagreeable co-workers, dealing with gossip.

Design a Unit Poster  on " Relating to Others" listing or illustrating the phrases-

    •     Be Polite and Thoughtful
    •     Be Friendly and Cooperative
    •     Listen to Others
    •     Have a Sense of Humor
    •     Give and Take Praise
    •     Be Careful About Criticism
    •     Keep An Open Mind
    •     Face Your Anger
    •     Deal with the Problem
Guest Speaker-
Invite a psychologist or personnel staff to Discuss the need to work at/develop relationships with people in the workplace. This is a much needed social skill with adolescents with special needs. Generate a list of things to do to improve your relationships with the people you work with.
Give students strips of paper with sentences related to relationship building and have them decide which category of social skill was being addressed.
ex: Sharing / Good Appearance / Be Cheerful / Greet People and Remember their Names / Share About Yourself / Be Considerate / Give Compliments / Make Small Talk / Show a Positive and Upbeat Attitude / Be Helpful / Show an Interest in Others
Next take turns making up things to say to go with the social skills. This is not easy for some students. Use lots of modeling here. It is much easier to match the sentences with the social skills than to come up with original statements/interactions.