I'm a very positive person. My family raised me to be very courteous and respectful of others. I get along with everyone or at least try to get along with everyone and help out whenever possible. I think that this is a great trait to have, but it's lead to one thing I'm not proud of... my inability to argue with people. Whenever I'm confronted by someone, especially when I know I'm not in the wrong, I'm so caught off guard that I don't know what to do. I get so angry and can't think straight that my face turns red and I end up just adding more fuel to the argument which isn't good. Thankfully I can recognize this so I have never been that worked up since my early high school days. However, when someone blatantly disrespects me I get really offended and hold a grudge for a few days even if I don't know the person. I end up catching myself later on in the day thinking about what happened and re-playing the scenario in my head analyzing what I should have done differently. I have a hard time just letting it go. The problem is that I'm thinking of all of this stuff in my head, but I don't say ANY of it! This may sound a little confusing so let me provide an example:
Today I was walking to work. I am relatively new to the company I work for, but I've already been promoted twice in the last year which is not very common around there (not tooting my own horn, this will come in to play a few sentences from now). So on the way in a guy at the door sees me and says "OH IT MUST BE NICE..." I immediately replied as politely as possible since this is a very common and annoying little thing people say whenever you show up 5 minutes later than them. It's a play on how life is so hard for them blah blah...I'm not a fan of it. I just smiled and said "yeah, it is pretty nice." I kept on walking, but failed to realize that was just the beginning of his statement. As I caught the rest of his statement it hit me that what he said over my reply of "yeah, it is pretty nice" was this "IT MUST BE NICE being 12 years old with 2 promotions under your belt..." Obviously taking a jab at my age. 23 years old. Anyway I just gave a little laugh and kept walking, but that's not at all what I was thinking in my head. The guy who made that comment is only 20 years old which immediately nullifies his attempt to poke at my age, has a terrible work ethic and spends more time on the smoke patio then he does in the office. Not to mention he's only been at the company for 4 months. That's fine. It's his career and he doesn't work for me so I have no problem with that, but even if I did have a problem I wouldn't say that to him unless it was in a professional manner. Was I right for just smiling and walking off? This is just 1 example of several little situations I've been in where people make smart comments or disrespectful comments. I don't want to come off as some sort of a pushover, but then again I don't want to have a short fuse and just flip out on anyone who says anything to me. I have a great sense of humor which has allowed me to take many other comments lightly, but some comments I feel are just blatantly disrespectful. Should I have taken the time to stop and say something back?
Today I was walking to work. I am relatively new to the company I work for, but I've already been promoted twice in the last year which is not very common around there (not tooting my own horn, this will come in to play a few sentences from now). So on the way in a guy at the door sees me and says "OH IT MUST BE NICE..." I immediately replied as politely as possible since this is a very common and annoying little thing people say whenever you show up 5 minutes later than them. It's a play on how life is so hard for them blah blah...I'm not a fan of it. I just smiled and said "yeah, it is pretty nice." I kept on walking, but failed to realize that was just the beginning of his statement. As I caught the rest of his statement it hit me that what he said over my reply of "yeah, it is pretty nice" was this "IT MUST BE NICE being 12 years old with 2 promotions under your belt..." Obviously taking a jab at my age. 23 years old. Anyway I just gave a little laugh and kept walking, but that's not at all what I was thinking in my head. The guy who made that comment is only 20 years old which immediately nullifies his attempt to poke at my age, has a terrible work ethic and spends more time on the smoke patio then he does in the office. Not to mention he's only been at the company for 4 months. That's fine. It's his career and he doesn't work for me so I have no problem with that, but even if I did have a problem I wouldn't say that to him unless it was in a professional manner. Was I right for just smiling and walking off? This is just 1 example of several little situations I've been in where people make smart comments or disrespectful comments. I don't want to come off as some sort of a pushover, but then again I don't want to have a short fuse and just flip out on anyone who says anything to me. I have a great sense of humor which has allowed me to take many other comments lightly, but some comments I feel are just blatantly disrespectful. Should I have taken the time to stop and say something back?