# New Co-worker **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 5, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103 "2019-04-05T19:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/21 "2019-04-06T15:38:57Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Politeness is overrated. In the OP’s situation I’d walk away from the guy unless the discussion is work related. I’d probably be polite enough to interrupt with “excuse me, but I’ve got work to do” when he started into some of his unrelated-to-work bullshit. And then retreat to my cube. If he followed me back, once I sat down, I’d say, “no, really, I’ve got work I’ve gotta get done,” and if he _still_ kept on talking, the first ‘work’ I’d do would be an email to his boss, cc’ing mine, explaining the problem I was having with this guy, and asking if he couldn’t speak to this guy about it. If he was looking over my shoulder while I typed it, then so much the better. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/22 "2019-04-06T15:58:59Z")
Does this guy clean carpets on the side? 'Cuz I’m pretty sure it’s the same maroon who included a ranting mini-course when he cleaned the office carpets a few months back. Did your co-worker also include the part about the earth’s core being hollow? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/23 "2019-04-06T16:11:14Z")
I think you can outlast this guy. Management already moved him once, and the people in his current group are likely to complain about him. Eventually they’ll either have to isolate him or fire him. Have you talked to your co-workers about him? I’m sure you’re not the only one he’s been bothering. Maybe you could work out strategies for coping with him. It’s interesting how he compartmentalizes his insanity. He holds many false beliefs, yet is able to do a good job in a technical field. How does he keep his screwball ideas from bleeding into his work? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/24 "2019-04-06T21:12:44Z")
#1 - pining for the non-existent “perfect 1950’s” is something taught by Fox News and right wing “christian” organization. You know, back when women and minorities knew their places in the world. So someone talking about that is an immediate red flag to me. Even my mother tried this. My response is usually to poke holes in the idea that the 1950’s was some perfect era. If they insist, then I’ll bring up taxes back then (:D) and the 1950’s Republican platform, which sounds pretty left wing by today’s Overton window. #2, plays right into #1 is this idea, which some guy in a MAGA cap suddenly decided I was the right person to share this with a couple of weeks ago, is the idea that schools don’t teach kids to think, they teach them WHAT to think. This is, of course, utter bullshit, but it is the very cream of Irony when spouted by people who watch Fox News to learn what to think. Assuming you’re not cut from the same political cloth, just make it clear to him - by explicitly saying so - that your politics are very different from his and you’d prefer not to have political arguments at work. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/25 "2019-04-06T21:51:41Z")
He has kids? How’d he ever find a woman to have sex with him more than once, unless he somehow found one that’s just like him? Those kids are probably total train wrecks themselves. This isn’t a work situation, but I occasionally go to a meetup where another person there, if left to her own devices, will talk about nothing except her abusive marriage and how she fled it with two little kids and the clothes on her back in 1972. Last time she did this with me, I interrupted her and said, “You’ve told that story before; I don’t need to hear it again” and she got up and left a few minutes later, stating that she had to pick up one of her grandchildren. :o Over the years, she was fired from multiple jobs, asked to leave churches (and not because they had an issue with her being divorced), and even kicked out of a battered women’s support group because her presence was too upsetting to the other members and they realized she didn’t want help! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/26 "2019-04-06T22:42:31Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > It’s interesting how he compartmentalizes his insanity. He holds many false beliefs, yet is able to do a good job in a technical field. How does he keep his screwball ideas from bleeding into his work? But not odd: > **[Engineers of Jihad](https://books.google.com/books/about/Engineers_of_Jihad.html?id=D18mDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button)** > > A groundbreaking investigation into why so many Islamic radicals are engineersThe violent actions of a few extremists can alter the course of history, yet there persists a yawning gap between the potential impact of these individuals and what we... ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/27 "2019-04-06T22:55:45Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Over the years, she was fired from multiple jobs, _ **asked to leave churches** _ (and not because they had an issue with her being divorced), and even kicked out of a battered women’s support group because her presence was too upsetting to the other members and they realized she didn’t want help! I may know her! Mine was in AA with me and she told the parish all about it, including how I had a harum of AA women, with one in particular. All true (see my thread about how RL women feel a need to tell me everything; in this case a woman who looked like Karen Gillam’s prettier clone in a bad marriage). She was asked to leave the church and AA. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/28 "2019-04-07T04:54:13Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > One way to handle him is to enlist a friendly coworker to call your office phone whenever he starts talking. Then you can say it’s a work question and you have to deal with it. Queen Elizabeth II uses her handbag to signal courtiers to invent a reason to get her aware from someone when she doesn’t want to talk to them anymore. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/29 "2019-04-07T09:45:31Z")
> [@robby](#): > > He took an online IQ test the other day that proves this. He scored a 155 I realize it was an online test and meaningless, but is a 155 IQ even possible? That’s something like 3-4 standard deviations above the mean I think. Why would someone smarter than 99.99% of the world be working **for** anyone? Seems like we’d all be working for him. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/30 "2019-04-07T12:48:27Z")
My guess he took the free test at **[payustojoinoursmartypantsclub.com](http://payustojoinoursmartypantsclub.com)**, and 155 is pretty common there. I believe their questions are curated from Celebrity Jeopardy\*. \*The version where the brain-twisters are from categories such as Potent Potables, Letter or Number?, Will this hurt if you put it in your mouth, and Famous Muppet Frogs. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/31 "2019-04-07T12:54:41Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > I realize it was an online test and meaningless, but is a 155 IQ even possible? That’s something like 3-4 standard deviations above the mean I think. > > Why would someone smarter than 99.99% of the world be working **for** anyone? Seems like we’d all be working for him. Yes, 155 is in fact the limit of the usual IQ tests. Go to any Mensa meeting, start asking people for “their number” and you’ll run into an absurd number of people who got a result of “156 or higher” or of “greater than 155” (the exact formulation varies by culture and language). It makes sense when you think about it: the higher someone’s IQ, the more likely (s)he is to feel like an alien in the company of most people, so the greater their need to be in the company of other people from outer space. And having a high IQ doesn’t equal having great economic ambition, or being good at sales, two things which are very much needed in order to end up at the top of the corporate pyramid. It just means we’re good at solving a specific type of problem; it’s the kind of thing that’s painful not to have enough of, but not that much of a deal to have more than the needed amount. Not only do most people not get paid more for being faster at this kind of stuff than our coworkers, but often we get in trouble with managers who think we’re cheating or not putting in enough effort (why should I put in more effort when I’ve already finished?). ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/32 "2019-04-07T14:11:39Z")
I had read you couldn’t score higher than a 163 (or rather, if you did, it didn’t mean anything). So I looked it up, and found this: > [@](#): > > An adult can only get a maximum IQ of 161 on the Cattell III B test. The Stanford-Binet goes up to 170. I got that from quora: [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-highest-possible-IQ-score](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-highest-possible-IQ-score) Looking up the former test, I found this on the British Mensa website: > [@](#): > > British Mensa can offer supervised tests using two separate, industry-standard tests, the Cattell III B and the Cattell Culture Fair III A. A score which puts you in the top two per cent of the population on either of these papers would qualify you for membership of Mensa. An adult can only get a maximum IQ of 161 on the Cattell III B test and 183 on Culture Fair. Link: [https://www.mensa.org.uk/what-is-an-iq-test](https://www.mensa.org.uk/what-is-an-iq-test) Unfortunately the website for Stanford-Binet did not list a “maximum” and recorded a few adults with really high IQ, including some people who died before this IQ test was devised, so I think we should stick to the Cattell III tests. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/33 "2019-04-07T17:49:17Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Queen Elizabeth II uses her handbag to signal courtiers to invent a reason to get her aware from someone when she doesn’t want to talk to them anymore. I’ve done that, but more to get two chatty staff members back to work. I’d call with some work related question and that would bust up the gabfest. Is there some sort of app that will make your phone ring to get you away from the situation? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/34 "2019-04-07T22:34:42Z")
Near the end of a Should’ve Ended Long Ago Meeting, I can mime “Whoa, my pocket’s vibrating” pretty well. And I always apologize: “Sorry, I don’t usually check my phone, but our dog’s sick… _[pull out phone, looking annoyed – which turns to concern as I “read” the screen]_ Oh, it’s the vet. I really should take this.” ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/35 "2019-04-08T01:47:52Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > And having a high IQ doesn’t equal having great economic ambition, or being good at sales, two things which are very much needed in order to end up at the top of the corporate pyramid. It just means we’re good at solving a specific type of problem; Isn’t the particular type of problem really the IQ test itself? I mean, aren’t the Mensa members really just exceptionally good at taking the IQ test? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/36 "2019-04-08T02:48:45Z")
You need to stock up on phrases like, ‘Is that so?’, ‘Uh huh.’, ‘Indeed’, etc. Seriously. Study up. Lay low, avoid engaging, and just nod along and make your non responses. That’s your whole arsenal, so let him blather on at length, use sparingly. If you stay the course, he’ll lose interest and wander off to another victim. He told you straight up he’s looking for an argument, he couldn’t have been clearer, to my mind. I too would find this a very trying situation, I wish you all the best Good Luck! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/37 "2019-04-08T03:14:13Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Yes, 155 is in fact the limit of the usual IQ tests. Go to any Mensa meeting, start asking people for “their number” and you’ll run into an absurd number of people who got a result of “156 or higher” or of “greater than 155” (the exact formulation varies by culture and language). It makes sense when you think about it: the higher someone’s IQ, the more likely (s)he is to feel like an alien in the company of most people, so the greater their need to be in the company of other people from outer space. > > And having a high IQ doesn’t equal having great economic ambition, or being good at sales, two things which are very much needed in order to end up at the top of the corporate pyramid. It just means we’re good at solving a specific type of problem; it’s the kind of thing that’s painful not to have enough of, but not that much of a deal to have more than the needed amount. Not only do most people not get paid more for being faster at this kind of stuff than our coworkers, but often we get in trouble with managers who think we’re cheating or not putting in enough effort (why should I put in more effort when I’ve already finished?). Conversely, a score of 40 or less, or therabouts, isn’t going to be accurate, although for different reasons. I know a lot of you aren’t going to believe this, but I’ve been a Mensa member since 1985 and have attended many gatherings of many types, and have NEVER heard anyone engage in any kind of dick-measuring WRT their IQ scores. The closest I’ve seen to this is people talking about which score on which test got them into the organization, and it was usually not a standard IQ test. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/38 "2019-04-08T03:16:58Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > It could be worse. > > My first job after college was as a lab manager of a biological science lab at a university. We got a new Ph.D. student who was suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect. > > Within two weeks of her arrival, I joked to the PI that he would have to watch his ass because she was so nuts I could see her accusing him of sexual harassment. A few months later, I found out she had done exactly that to her adviser at her previous university where she was supposedly getting her masters degree. > > I did not get along with her at all because she used to leave equipment on and I would have to replace reservoirs and she created other make work for me. Just a moron. > > At a journal club, we covered a paper where they transfected the famous HeLa cell line with DNA that expressed an always active oncogene. I joked they gave cancer to a cancer cell. She took issue with this and set me multiple emails which I still have saved to this day where it was obvious she didn’t understand the paper, conflating two different proteins in a signaling pathway (she thought MAPK and MAPKK were the same protein and just had different phosphorylation status, for those in the know). > > At another journal club meeting, she got into an argument with a professor about using the relatively new method of using siRNA to knock-down gene expression of enzymes involved in lipid metabolism because “[nematodes] didn’t have body fat. That’s just stupid”. Yeah, new student telling a professor that in front of everyone. > > People in the department would see me in the hallway and ask me what was wrong with her. > > I went on to a postdoc and a few months after that, catching up with my old lab mates at a happy hour, I was told she wanted to accuse another professor of sexual harassment because she was failing his class. I was told this was total BS on her part because she had blatantly doctored his emails to her. > > It was so bad that at a happy hour years later I mentioned her and was told: “We don’t talk about her”. > > So, instead of just being a kook, she had no problem fucking with people’s careers with false accusations. Out of morbid curiosity, is she Googlable, and if so, what kind of results do you get? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/39 "2019-04-08T04:26:56Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Out of morbid curiosity, is she Googlable, and if so, what kind of results do you get? Feel free to share. My experience is that the academic world is a small, nosy village. Where news about anyone’s personality (esp. a toxic one) will get passed around. Partly as a warning, partly because it’s so therapeutic to share war stories. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103/40 "2019-04-08T04:51:32Z")
You could try shushing him and saying, “I’m sorry, but the gravity gods won’t let me speak to you right now.” I think, though, that the better tactic is to ensure TPTB share the pain. There’s no better motivator to get someone the hell out of there. So next time he tries to engage you, say something like, “Hey, you know who wanted to talk about that just last week? [Boss’s name.] You should hear all he has to say on the subject!” Don’t insulate your superior from the pain this guy causes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-co-worker/832103.md?page=3)