Maybe you accidentally burned a bag of popcorn in the break-room microwave and got the tasty snack banned from your office. Who among us has never left a dirty dish in the sink or carried on a loud conversation outside of someone’s office? On the other hand, if you have a co-worker who seriously undermines your ability to succeed at work, the problem becomes considerably more complex. On the other hand, event the most diplomatic tête-à-tête can leave a relationship strained. Sometimes, just giving people a new setting can help refresh and relax them. An icebreaker can be relatively easy to pull off among co-workers in the average office, but what about when you’re faced with energizing a large conference room or lecture hall full of icy business people? The good news is that there are some things you can do to effectively deal with challenging co-workers and maintain sanity within your place of business. There is also a good chance that a simple discussion will clear the air.

One of the best ways to encourage appropriate behavior in an office environment is to set a good example. Or, could you have done something to provoke hostility or some other type of inappropriate behavior in him or her? No matter what your strategy for coping with a difficult colleague, you’ll probably continue to have some interaction with him or her, assuming you remain with the organization. Your organization may have systems in place for resolving conflict and organizing teams based on personality or other measures of compatibility. It may be targeting the plumes of Enceladus, which were examined periodically by Cassini during flybys. A quick joke in response to an affront may disarm the offending co-worker and prevent his or her antagonistic behavior in the future. Before diving head-first into confrontation, you’ll want to examine your own behavior and track record to make sure you don’t make the situation worse. Even though he holds the record for the most number of Everest summits with 17 successful attempts, he only climbs to afford a brighter future for his children and donates some income from his trekking business to a Sherpa educational fund.

They are merciless with their prey, and have even been known to go after sharks. Not so for newly empowered private commercial space developers like tSpace and Scaled Composites, whose plans are moving forward at warp speed. Office relocations need a team of experienced professionals to manage the move from start to finish and safely transport commercial equipment between locations. No, it doesn’t need to be a separate room. There is a huge difference between, “I need you to do this … so try not to screw it up,” and, “I need you to do this … and I know you’ll do a great job.” Still, there is no real substantive difference in what is being asked. Next render I will remove the couch and place there a desk with a computer, books, just things like that. If everyone has a chance to speak to the whole group, by the end, no one will be able to keep anyone straight. If you’ve been quite chummy in the past, do your best to keep things “strictly business” for a while. But with this list, your search for the best office plants is over!

Once you’ve analyzed your relationship with the irksome office mate, you may conclude that your best defense is to confront him or her. If the probe cannot launch by April 26, the team may have to stand down for up to 45 days to accommodate the launch of NASA’s InSight Mars mission. If so, it may be time to for some practical strategies for coping with your annoying associate, which we review in the next section. If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to discreetly discuss the problem with a member of the human resources team. If so, there are probably some simple solutions for putting space between you and the odoriferous offender. It sounds like an urban legend that should be right up there with Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola, but NASA will actually pay you $5,000 to lie in bed for 90 days. The spacecraft, scheduled for launch in January of 2006, will study Pluto, its moon Charon, and hopefully a few objects in the Kuiper Belt. Can you somehow survive and be happy in your job, or will your spirit deteriorate until you’re ready to leap from the tallest building?