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Peace at the Water Cooler
Saranne Segal is a conflict resolution advocate on a mission to create more harmonious workplaces. Peace at the Water Cooler is your go-to podcast for dealing with difficult people, managing toxic behaviours and how to have those tricky conversations with colleagues. With a background as a lawyer and mediator, Saranne brings decades of experience dealing with workplace conflict to each episode as she talks to experts, authors and employees.
Peace at the Water Cooler
Dealing With Passive-Aggressive People (and Other Workplace Delights)
That smirk? That "accidental" oversight? That email CC’d to your boss for "visibility"? Yep, we’re talking about passive-aggression, and it’s everywhere.
In this episode of Peace at the Water Cooler, Saranne Segal delves into one of the most maddening (yet maddeningly common) behaviours in the modern workplace: passive aggression. It’s subtle. It’s slippery. It’s usually delivered with a smile. And if you’ve ever worked with someone who says “no offence” right before deeply offending you, congrats, you’ve met Trevor. (More on him inside.)
From sighs, eye-rolls and weaponised politeness to mysteriously forgotten deadlines and oh-so-polite sabotage, Saranne unpacks why passive-aggression isn’t just irritating. It’s corrosive. And if left unchecked, it can quietly unravel even the most functional of teams.
Expect:
- Real stories from the conflict resolution trenches, including a Trevor who turned a training session into a slow-burning nightmare
- Insight into why passive-aggression is rarely about the task and almost always about unspoken emotion
- Practical, no-nonsense strategies to deal with it without losing your cool or your credibility
- Tips on setting boundaries, staying neutral, and not taking the bait when the sarcasm starts flying
You’ll hear how vague sabotage got called out with clarity, how a quietly undermining colleague was confronted with calm professionalism, and why the smartest move is sometimes refusing to play the game at all.
So if you're managing a team, stuck in a toxic loop, or simply trying to get through a meeting without plotting revenge over spreadsheets, this one's for you.
🔈 Tune in. Laugh. Learn. And get ready to outwit the most maddeningly "polite" people in your workplace.
Thanks for listening to Peace at the Water Cooler.
Conflict doesn’t fix itself, but it can shift, with the right conversation. If you’ve got a story, a question, or a workplace dilemma you'd like me to explore, connect with me on LinkedIn or send me an email at (saranne@segalconflictsolutions.com.au)