Basically the title. I’ve never considered myself a sensitive person but after today’s call, I think I should reconsider. I tend to be a respectful person. If someone is behaving rudely depending on the situation or the person I might confront them about their attitude, I might smile and keep my friendly posture or I might ignore them and walk away but sometimes you can’t just walk away specially if that rude person you’re dealing with is a government employee or works in human services or in banks. These are the places that I’ve usually seen people being rude to the client. There was a problem at university that I needed to sort out. I had to call the man who was supposed to fix my problem to see how things have progressed. I called 2 times and no one picked up. The 3d time that he finally answered, he sounded irritated and said I didn’t have to call that many times and that he already told me he would call me if things got sorted out. I started explaining why I called despite him telling me he’d call himself but he started talking with his phone and ignored me and when he finally hung up his phone, he got back to me and asked me what I was saying so I had to repeat myself again. After the call ended, I felt so bad about myself and as embarrassed as I am to admit but I nearly cried. I don’t have much experience but I guess there’s gonna be similar situations in future so how can I stop myself from getting upset when someone is rude to me?
2 comments
I mean I could tell you to simply grow a thick skin but thats not done by snapping with your fingers.
Start by getting the right mindset. Is this one short event with some stranger you may never see/hear ever again after the Problem is solved, worth it to ruin your day over?
Fuck him and move on, you wouldnt have cared about him if he werent rude in the first place anyway so why bother?
Here’s a mind trick I use. Instead of getting upset and angry, get curious and amused. This is not about you, it’s about this person acting the way they do. The focus is on them. If it’s an administrative position, then he probably deals with a lot of tasks, he may be short-handed. If it’s his job to sort out your problem, the responsibility is on him. Sure, would be nice if he didn’t act rude in the meantime, but hey, we all deal with triggers and trauma and some people are handling it better than others.