Dealing with difficult people at work is a practical skill: recognising common difficult behaviours, staying composed, choosing words that lower the temperature, setting clear boundaries, giving direct feedback to peers and knowing when to involve a manager. Bodhih's one-day workshop builds these skills through realistic practice on everyday workplace situations, customised to your teams.
- Recommended: 1 day in person, or 3 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 30-day practice plan
- Level: Foundation · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: dealing with difficult people training, difficult colleagues workshop, handling difficult coworkers, difficult behaviour at work training
Where and how: dealing with difficult people at work training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why everyday friction deserves real skills
Hybrid calendars, cross-functional projects and teams spread across Bengaluru, Pune and Dubai mean people work with more colleagues they barely know. A single difficult working relationship can slow a project, drain a meeting and make good people quietly withdraw.
Most employees are never taught what to do in the moment. They either stay silent and stew, or snap and regret it. Training on dealing with difficult people at work gives them a middle path: respectful, direct and focused on getting the work done.
Gallup reports that only 20% of employees worldwide were engaged at work in 2025.
31% of CHROs are emphasising workplace culture for 2026, up from 15% in 2025.
What participants will be able to do
Read the behaviour, not the person
Recognise common difficult patterns such as interrupting, blaming, silent resistance and over-promising, and what often sits behind them.
Stay composed in the moment
Use a short pause-and-reset routine to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting when a colleague pushes your buttons.
Choose words that de-escalate
Replace loaded phrases with neutral, specific language that lowers the temperature and keeps the discussion on the work.
Set and hold boundaries
Say no, protect your time and restate agreements politely and firmly, without apologising for reasonable limits.
Give direct feedback to peers
Raise a recurring issue with a colleague privately, clearly and respectfully, and agree on what changes next.
Know when to escalate
Judge when a working problem needs your manager, and bring it with facts, impact and what you have already tried.
Who should attend
- Team members and individual contributors in any function
- Specialists who depend on other teams for inputs, such as finance, IT and operations
- Employees in cross-functional or matrix projects with many stakeholders
- New joiners and early-career professionals learning to work across teams
- Customer-facing staff who also manage internal handoffs
- Team leads who want their people to resolve peer issues directly
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01What makes behaviour difficultModule 1 · 60 min+
- Four familiar patterns: the interrupter, the blamer, the silent resister, the over-promiser
- Separating the behaviour from the person and from your own story about them
- What each pattern may be protecting: status, time, fear of failure
- Self-check: which patterns trigger you most
02Staying composed under pressureModule 2 · 75 min+
- Noticing your early signals of irritation
- A three-step pause: breathe, name it to yourself, choose your response
- Buying time with neutral phrases
- Practice: responding to rapid-fire provocations in pairs
03Words that de-escalateModule 3 · 90 min+
- Swapping loaded words for specific, neutral descriptions
- Listening to understand and summarising before responding
- Moving the conversation from blame to next steps
- Drill: rewrite ten real emails and chat messages
04Setting boundaries at workModule 4 · 75 min+
- Saying no and offering alternatives without guilt
- Protecting focus time from constant pings and last-minute asks
- Restating agreements when someone overpromises on your behalf
- Role-play: the colleague who dumps work at 6 pm
05Direct feedback, peer to peerModule 5 · 90 min+
- Choosing the moment and the medium
- A simple structure: what I noticed, the impact on the work, what I am asking for
- Handling pushback, denial and counter-accusation
- Practice rounds with observer feedback
06When and how to escalateModule 6 · 45 min+
- Signals that a working issue needs your manager
- Bringing facts, impact and what you have tried
- Keeping the working relationship intact after escalation
- Personal 30-day practice plan
Sample training plan: 1-day hands-on design
This one-day workshop is mostly practice on the everyday friction employees meet at work. Participants name the behaviours that push their buttons, rehearse a pause-and-reset routine against rapid provocations and rewrite tense emails and chat messages. They practise boundaries with a colleague who dumps work at 6 pm, give direct feedback to an interrupting peer and decide when an issue belongs with their manager. Each person leaves with a 30-day plan for one real working relationship.
Participants can stay composed, de-escalate, set boundaries, give peer feedback and judge when to escalate.
- 09:30–10:00Button boardEnergiser
- 10:00–10:45Behind the behaviourDiagnostic
- 11:00–12:00Pause and resetSkill drill
- 12:00–13:00Rewrite the messageHands-on lab
- 13:45–14:45The 6 pm dropRole-play
- 14:45–15:45Feedback to a peerReal-play
- 16:00–16:45Escalate or not?Debate
- 16:45–17:30My 30-day practice planAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 1 day in person (09:30–17:30), or 3 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 30-day practice plan. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is the dealing with difficult people at work training?
The recommended design is one full day in person, or three live virtual sessions of two and a half hours, followed by a 30-day practice plan with check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days and a post-assessment at the end.
What activities are included in the workshop?
Participants map the behaviours that trigger them, drill a pause-and-reset routine against rapid provocations, rewrite tense emails and chat messages, hold boundaries with a colleague who drops work at 6 pm, rehearse direct feedback to a real peer and debate when an issue needs a manager.
How we deliver it
Scenes from your workplace
Before the workshop, we collect anonymised examples of everyday friction from your teams, so role-plays on dealing with difficult people at work feel familiar rather than theatrical.
Practice over theory
About three quarters of the day is practice: drills, role-plays and rewriting real messages, with short inputs between them.
Actor-style facilitation
Facilitators can step into the difficult role themselves so participants rehearse against realistic pushback, then replay the scene with a new approach.
Small, safe groups
Participants practise in trios with an observer, which keeps pressure low and gives everyone several chances to try new words.
Tailored versions
For IT, GCC and cross-functional teams
Scenes from sprint reviews, onsite-offshore calls, chat threads and matrix projects where colleagues sit in different cities and time zones.
For operations, retail and frontline teams
Shift handovers, floor disagreements and peer tension during busy hours, with shorter sessions that fit around rosters.
For new joiners and early-career professionals
A half-day version on dealing with difficult people at work as a newcomer: speaking up, setting boundaries and handling senior colleagues who interrupt or dismiss ideas.
How we measure impact
Following the ADDIE model's Evaluate stage, participants complete a pre and post assessment of interpersonal and communication skills on AssessAll. Each person leaves with a 30-day practice plan naming one working relationship and one new habit. Managers hold short check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days, and we can review team pulse questions on collaboration with your HR partner. Individual development plans help people keep practising, and a sample training plan is available to download.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
How do you deal with difficult people at work?
Focus on the behaviour, not the person. Stay composed, listen long enough to understand their concern, then respond with specific, neutral words that bring the conversation back to the work. Set clear boundaries and raise recurring issues privately and directly. If that does not help, involve your manager with facts. Our workshop practises each step in realistic scenes.
How do you stay composed with a difficult colleague?
Notice your early signs of irritation, then pause before replying. Take a breath, name to yourself what is happening and choose a response rather than reacting. A neutral holding phrase, such as asking to come back in ten minutes, buys time. The training rehearses this pause until it becomes a habit rather than an effort.
What do you say to a coworker who keeps interrupting?
Hold your point calmly and name the pattern briefly: 'Let me finish this thought, then I would like to hear yours.' If it continues, raise it privately afterwards with a specific example and a clear request. Asking the meeting chair to take turns can also help. Participants practise these lines with realistic pushback.
How do you set boundaries with a colleague?
Be clear, polite and consistent. State what you can do, what you cannot and offer an alternative where possible, for example a later deadline or another contact. Avoid long apologies or explanations. Restate the boundary calmly if it is tested. The program includes role-plays on late-evening requests, scope creep and colleagues who commit on your behalf.
When should you escalate a coworker issue to your manager?
Escalate when the behaviour keeps affecting deadlines, quality or customers after you have raised it directly, or when you cannot resolve it between yourselves. Bring specific examples, the impact on the work and what you have already tried. Framing it as a work problem to solve, not a complaint about a person, keeps the conversation constructive.
How do you give feedback to a difficult peer?
Choose a private moment, describe one specific behaviour you noticed, explain its impact on the work and ask for a concrete change. Then listen to their view, because there is often context you did not have. Agree what happens next. The training uses repeated practice rounds so participants find words that feel natural to them.
Who should attend dealing with difficult people training?
Any employee who works with colleagues across teams, from new joiners to senior specialists. It is especially useful for people in cross-functional projects, shared services, IT and operations, where work depends on others. Team leads often attend too, so they can encourage their people to resolve peer issues directly before escalating.
Can this workshop run online for distributed teams?
Yes. Bodhih runs it as three live virtual sessions of two and a half hours, with breakout-room role-plays and message-rewriting drills. It works well for teams in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Dubai and Singapore who mostly collaborate online. Bodhih has impacted over 2,00,000 lives since 2008 through in-person and virtual programs.