Learn English – n adjective for people who work poorly together

single-word-requests

I'm looking for an adjective that describes a group of people who don't get along, who work poorly together, who don't necessarily like each other. A word that means or implies interpersonal difficulties, but not ones that are impossible to overcome.

Example:

Several ____ coworkers caused the project to be delivered late.

Some words I've come across that I don't think fit:

  • Inharmonious: This is probably the closest, it just sounds very clunky. I wouldn't use it in everyday conversation. If I can't find anything else, this is probably what I will use.

  • Incompatible: This has a more absolute connotation that I want. If two things are incompatible, there is just no way around it.

  • Antagonistic: Close, but it doesn't convey the "interpersonal" part. If I said "several antagonistic coworkers," I'd be more inclined to think they were antagonizing someone outside of the specified group of coworkers.

Best Answer

fractious

1(typically of children) irritable and quarrelsome: ‘they fight and squabble like fractious children’

1.1 (of a group or organization) difficult to control; unruly: ‘King Malcolm struggled to unite his fractious kingdom’

‘After going backwards at the election and losing ground in opinion polls since, Opposition MPs are cranky, fractious and looking for answers.’

Oxford Living Dictionaries, Fractious. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fractious

Fractious can describe individual people, but more often describes a group or an organization.

Related Topic