The Ball-Dropper

How He Disrupts Your Day: Because you’re a nice person, you often end up covering for this guy, which means his shortcomings don’t get exposed. That makes the ball-dropping snowball, ensuring that you’ll have even more messes to clean up. You feel exploited and burdened by an unfair workload.

Best Way to Finesse: Fire a warning shot. “Explain that you were happy to help until now but that you can’t do it anymore because your own work is suffering,” says Howard. If that doesn’t fly, suggest a meeting with your mutual supervisor, if you have one, to address both your workloads. “If you continue to pick up the extra work, your stress level will become intolerable,” says Peter Post, director of the Emily Post Institute, a coauthor of The Etiquette Advantage in Business: Personal Skills for Professional Success (HarperCollins, $27, www.amazon.com), and the author of Essential Manners for Men (HarperCollins, $22, www.amazon.com).

The Belittling Boss

How He Disrupts Your Day: He seems to think that hasty criticism is an effective management technique. He takes any opportunity to grill you in front of others until he finds a weak spot to exploit.

Best Way to Finesse: “Ask, in private, where the doubt is coming from,” etiquette expert Margo Howard says. “There might not be an answer.” Explain that the constant unconstructive criticism is having a deleterious effect on your output. A simple “Tell me what I need to be doing” should help clarify things, says author Marjorie Brody.