We've employed a young modern apprentice at work. He's nice enough: polite, helpful, but profoundly irritating. I thought this was just me, but having spoken to colleagues, one has described him as annoying, and another as a nuisance. I cannot pinpoint exactly what it is.
I have made a conscious effort to be accepting and kind to him, I bought him coffee before picking him up and giving him a lift last week, but within minutes I could feel myself getting irritated. Another colleague will not offer him a lift at all – what I'm trying to emphasise is that it's not just a personality clash, but at least three other people at work experience the same thing.
It's actually got to the point where I'm dreading shifts with him because I know he's going to piss me off, despite me trying desperately to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Have you ever came across someone like this? Can you articulate what made them irritating?
Here are a couple of trivial things he done tonight that annoyed me:-
– We coach young children football. He stood and spoke to parents as if he was highly familiar with them, despite not really knowing them. I like that he's confident but the over familiarity was annoying, and I think perhaps it wasn't his role at the time.
– To kick-off that matches, we like to ask trivia questions (for example, 'Who are Scotland playing tomorrow night' – first to answer wins. His trivia question was 'what's my name?'.
I realise again that there isn't a way to articulate it, it's just his personality. I would like to reiterate that I think he's a nice person, but I've never met someone that can really grind people's gears so much.