Dealing With Rude People
My sweet friend Kaylee (hi, Kaylee!) is in the hospital, and writes that some of her nurses are rude. How awful! That got me to thinking about how I deal with rude people.
I mostly blow them off and try not to have any dealings with them. If you're going to complain to their supervisor, you have to try to figure out which big-shot in the corporate structure will actually do something about the problem - a real take-charge person, or maybe just someone who wants to get the other person in trouble.
I like a more direct approach. The other day some other lady and I got bad service at McDonalds. I told the manager "You're really rude."
With a smile on her face, she replied "No I'm not."
LOL! What a weird response!
Sometimes I like to purposely annoy rude people. I remember one rude co-worker who everyone disliked. We noticed that she hated when anyone touched anything on her desk. So people would do little things like adjust her chair up or down. Or change the cursor speed on her computer, so if she moved the mouse just a little, the cursor would go zooming way across the screen. One day we moved everything on her desk to the mirror opposite location of where it was before. Hee-hee.
Sometimes its enough to entertain yourself by plotting silly evil plots. Yep, I'm all about silly evil plots. When I see that my arch-nemesis, the mean little overnight shoe lady at my store has a lot of work to do, I pretend I arranged it that way, and laugh an evil laugh... Muahahaha!
But success is the best revenge. The mean little shoe lady always looks surprised and annoyed when she tries to get me in trouble and it doesn't work, or when she finds out I know how to do something that she doesn't.
How do you deal with rude people?
10 words of wisdom and smart remarks:
I usually go out of my way to be courteous to others so I find it especially off putting when people are rude to me. I try to tell myself that it's nothing personal or that they just don't know any better and are oblivious to what they are doing. Most people don't do things intentionally to mess with other people, I know I don't. I know I must do things others don't like, but it's never done on purpose. To answer your question, I usually internalize it and feel angry inside, probably not the best way to deal with things. Of course if they go too far, I'm not anyone's punching bag either. ;^)
I turn up the charm. Refuse to let them do me in. Oftentimes the rude person unrudifies. Other times, though, I push back. Being tall helps. I guess it's a random mood swing thing.
I absolutely love the way you deal with rude people. Your wicked tactics. Little evil shenningans. I'm boring compared to you; I just flat out ignore them, and if I have to speak to them I will in a very abrupt and firm way. But your approach has a high lols factor.
One of our distribution staff once sticky taped every single thing to one of the office admin girl's desk. Including phone, stapler, keypad, mouse, pens. Everything. It was hilarious.
Like others have said I try to respond really nicely - over the top nice. Then they realise they're being jerks. Or if not at least you have the satisfaction of not stooping to their level.
Ummm, my post laft you thinking?
Badside - wow, you sure are wise. And patient. I can be very patient about some things, but I tend to assume people are usually rude because they're overly self-centered and aggressive - two personality traits that really annoy me. What blows my mind is that the mean little shoe lady's brother works at Wal-Mart too, and he's one of the nicest people ever. What happened there?
Don - yeah, turning up the charm usually works for me too, unless the other person is a complete jerk.
Orhan - now you know why I'm chaotic. I like my life to have a high lols factor, and I sometimes like to do the unexpected. It entertains me. But I'm not good at all at being abrupt or firm. I wish I could be sometimes.
Observer - that's hilarious! It reminds me of the time our unloaders shrink-wrapped someone's car. Lol!
Sounds like being very nice works for a lot of people.
Kaylee - your blog often makes me think. I hope some of these suggestions are making you think, or at least laugh. :)
Anne
Hi Anne
people by nature are not rude,situations force them to remain so. My policy is to accept others as they are.dont you think that it is the right way to handle people?
Deepak - thank you. You've given me something big to think about.
Anne
the twisted wicked approach is much more fun than my "be nice till it hurts tactic". i overdo the sweetness and kindness and pretend they are not really as rude as they appear.
my thing is being nice to cashiers, someone i once knew told me that she couldn't be bothered cos she didn't care about them (being non-persons). i told her she was the rude one for being so unkind and rude herself.
Sis - thanks. Cashiers are people too. :)
Anne
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