Sadly "avoid, avoid, avoid, deflect, and when you to absolutely <i>have to</i> deal with them, just keep it polite and transactional, just-the-facts-ma'am, all about the work and the work only. And count the days until the next job comes along and/or I have enough FU money to take a nice, long vacation" often seems to be if not the best, certainly the simples minimum viable solution.<p>(Combined with, "And BTW, try not to drink too much.")<p>Yeah sure, there's also "talk to management about it" (which is in fact the first line of defense). And often enough, it actually does work.<p>The thing is, often enough the issue isn't the co-worker per se, but denial, myopia and/or a sense of paralysis in the management layers who you'd think would be both (1) able to recognize the problem and (2) eager to help out. So sadly, in not infrequently happens that neither (1) or (2) is in the cards. Typically because they think said employee is a rockstar/10xer, always at his desk, always seems to able to answer loudly and confidently about any subject whether he actually knows what he's talking about or not. You know, valued, irreplaceable character traits like that that many organizations cherish and reward with handsome bonuses and promotions.<p>And so it goes, on and on and on in this work culture of ours.