What are the challenges of dealing with difficult people?

Liz Makin Author

Oct 31, 2025 |

A look at some of the challenges of dealing with difficult people in life and at work.

What is a difficult person?

Whether a person is difficult is very subjective, as being a difficult person can mean different things to different people.

You may refer to someone as difficult because you find them uncooperative, stubborn, resistant to change, hard to please, have high standards or expectations or challenging to interact with due to their behaviour or personality. Equally someone may find you difficult for any of these reasons.

We all have different personalities, patterns of behaviour and preferences, so what one person finds difficult, someone else may not. 

In many cases the other person is not a difficult person per se, they may just be different to you, so you find them or they find you difficult. Therefore, be very careful in how you label people.

In general, you are likely to find someone difficult if they create discomfort for you and vice versa.

What are the challenges of dealing with difficult people?

There are many challenges of dealing with difficult people including the impact on your own feelings, thoughts and behaviour, as well as the impact on the wider group of people they interact with. There will also be impacts on the performance of the organisation. 

We will now consider some of these impacts:

1. Stress and anxiety. A difficult person can make you feel stressed in their presence or when thinking about them.

2. Declining productivity. Dealing with a difficult person can negatively impact your productivity as you become distracted by the difficult person and their behaviour. You spend your time trying to work out how to deal with the difficult person. 

3. Impacts your behaviour. A difficult person can make you behave differently to normal or in ways you are uncomfortable with. 

4. Energy sapping. A difficult person can start to drain the life and energy out of you. 

5. Reduced confidence and self esteem. A difficult person can knock your confidence and self esteem, as their behaviour undermines you and you find them challenging to deal with. 

6. Decreased enthusiasm. When you are dealing with a difficult person it is very challenging and this can have a big impact on your outlook on life. 

7. Take responsibility for their actions. When dealing with a difficult person you can feel it is your fault they are behaving in this way. 

8. Distracting. Dealing with a difficult person can be distracting for everyone in an organisation and the people they deal with. 

9. Absenteeism and people leaving. When you have a difficult person in your organisation, this can result in toxic work conditions, which can lead to unexplained absences and sick leave, as well as ultimately people leaving the organisation.

10. Organisational performance suffers. Difficult people can impact all areas of an organisation such as customer satisfaction, increased costs, reputation, staff motivation and turnover, productivity and operational and financial performance.

It is easy to think that difficult people do not impact those around them but as you can see dealing with difficult people is not just a communication issue it has many other impacts too.

Do you want to learn more about how to positively and effectively deal with difficult people?

If you want to learn more about how to positively and effectively deal with difficult people take a look at our online course:

How to deal with difficult people in life and at work

On this course you will:

* Gain an insight into communicating with and dealing with difficult people.

* Look at how you deal with difficult people and identify the areas you want to improve on.

* Be given a range of tools, tips and strategies to use to positively and effectively deal with difficult people in your life and at work.

* Develop a personalised action plan to positively and effectively deal with difficult people in your life and at work going forward.

You can take a look at our range of online personal development courses and bundles, including current special offers, at https://onlinecourses.makinithappen.co.uk

Categories: : Business, Communication, Difficult people, Life, Online courses, Personal development