I’m young so I’m not a very experienced person, but I suspect a lot of you older folk with decades of “people experience” have encountered people who seemed to just always be angry for no apparent reason. What have you done to win them over?
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I previously typed out a really long and detailed explanation of something that happened today at work, but I suppose the crux of the problem is there’s this angry (beyond simply grumpy) man at work and today he yelled at me because I was helping him (in case you’re wondering he’s probably 40-50 y.o.)
Like top of the lungs yelling. Instead of entering a petty game of bitterness with a possibility of escalated arguing I want to win him over with kindness. I first got a bit angry but there has to be a good reason why he got so angry. I suspect either something was bothering him today or he’s just become a bitter and resentful person over the course of his life, I believe both are valid possibilities.
I would say the details of a situation almost always matter, but you guys have to trust me on this when I say there is no reasonable probability where I caused a genuine offense and deserved to be yelled at. Something is bothering this guy and I want to see if I can “crack him” so to speak. Win him over with kindness.
I’m young so I’m not a very experienced person, but I suspect a lot of you older folk with decades of people experience have encountered people who seemed to just always be angry for no apparent reason. What have you done to win them over?
What should I do? My first thought was buying him a cup of coffee tomorrow and just ask him how he’s doing. It might even catch him off guard and make him feel bad for being so rude today. I know that sounds sort of manipulative, but my hope is he’ll naturally realize on his own what a jerk he was and then maybe we can form an amicable or at least neutral relationship at work.
Thanks