Colleague keeps on comparing our company to his past company

Question

For the past few weeks. We have a new colleague who has been very talkative. He keeps on comparing his past company that it was more of an advantage for him before and comparing it to our current company.

For example :

Him : "Our Computers on my past company was very fast. It has 16GB ram. Comparing to what you have now in your current company."

Him : "The people here doesn't care about sharing about their knowledge while on my past company, They share a lot."

There are a lot more with his comparison. On top of that. We actually shared and trained him for this last couple weeks to be at his best. The problem is this is his second company and he keeps on comparing his experience on his past company.

I advised him that "This is the real world. There are a lot of different companies with different cultures. You have to deal with it"

He just ignores my advice and keeps on being proud on what experience he had.

As a colleague. What can I do to make him stop with his comparisons with his past company? What can I do to make him realise that his very boastful?

Answer 1

If you are not his manager, then just put up with it. In the workplace you have to work with people of all different personalities, some of which will rub you the wrong way. What you describe sounds like a personality issue that is a minor annoyance. It will only have an impact on you to the extent that you let it bother you.

If this escalates and he is significantly disrupting work or denigrating you or your colleagues, then I might consider discussing it directly with him, or ultimately taking it up with your manager. But it doesn't sound that serious yet.

I would try to ignore it and have an amicable relationship with him. The more you can focus on the positive in your interactions with him, the better.

I admire the sentiment in mutt's answer, but I think that most of the time, attempting to change behavior like this is not realistic. Also, this is a lot to take on.

If you are his manager, consider discussing it with him. The behavior may have an impact on morale, it at least his own success in the position. And it's reasonable to expect your employees to have a positive attitude about their workplace (within reason). So I would probably address this if I had managerial oversight of him. It sounds from the question that you don't, though, in which case this discussion is not your place.

Answer 2

This sounds very much like an insecure person who doesn't have much experience, but wants to appear like they do. They may be a talker or just talk out of nervousness. Either way, trying to see where they are coming from and meet them there, while pulling them out of that place into maturity in reality is the best thing you could do for them. This isn't an easy thing, but if you truly want to help the person grow and adapt then that is the best path to take.

1. Listen carefully to the things that the person praises/scorns from the last company.
2. Ask questions to why those particular things were so important to them.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you get to something meaningful like (Fast computers are cool to me as they make me feel like I have the power in my hands to accomplish great things or work faster or something - makes them feel empowered...).

Getting to #3 is where the insecurity and issues truly are. If you can get that understanding then you can likely help to re-assure and teach in the area the person is insecure so that there isn't any need to boast (overcompensate) about the past company. This can be tedious and is dependent on the other persons personality, experiences, biases, etc... so you will have to be patient here, but it will teach you through experience how to find out where other people really are even if they are hiding from that themselves. That will help you out in dealing with all people especially if you have a wish to lead others.

Emotional maturity has to be grown and developed, age doesn't matter there, but only who chooses to grow in understanding, accepting, and processing emotions in reality...their own as well as others.

Answer 3

It can be a pain when when a co worker keeps going on about his last company .The last company would have been doing some things right so you can learn some techniques .The last company would have done some things wrong so you can also learn how not to do things .There is no way that the last company did everything right or everything wrong .If your co workers comments become too much then why not in private politely inform him that if his pet company was so wonderful then why is he not still working there and also state that he could always go back there.I used this technique on someone who kept going on about Txxx Electronics .The outcome was good .Sxxxxx still works for new company .People have stopped grizzling about Sxxxxx .To put the boot on the other foot in 1992 I used to deliberately go on about my last company Exxxxxxxx because I hated it at Exxxx .Maybe your co worker is unhappy and will move on sooner or later .