@Coloma it is ideal when a person is a willing participant. For example. But I’ve had to work with a person such as you described.
I insisted on communicating with him, greeting him everyonce in a while listening to his stories or dumb jokes, sharing helpful info… addressing him when I had a problem. He started doing the doing the same.. when I had disagreed with him about the later I approached him and insisted we talk it out. Just doing that made a difference.
He didn’t change overnight, and it wasn’t fun to stick to my game plan but I got him not only to perform more of his job. But he approached me differently and he started doing the same thing with other coworkers with not as much success. Because he had been in the role of coworker asshole so long that everyone else resisted the change. I guess it really didn’t change too much of his nature.
I think he started understanding how to get good results from people and that involved treating them better. He no doubt did it for his own benefit but the outward result was the same.
It is much easier to catch those types of behaviors when people are younger and still forming a sense of self.