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    Sebastian Marks June 17, 2011, 12:37 pm

    I had this type of situation ten years ago, where I used to work. It wasn’t a woman I was “interested in” but same kind of relational problem. For some reason, a woman in the accounting department just “had it in” for me. She’d publicly cause problems with my department’s purchase and cash requests (which I handled) and other forms of animosity aimed toward me personally, which she’d enlist her friends to assist her with from time to time.

    After a couple months, someone whispered to me that part of the reason for it might be that I looked sort of like an ex-boyfriend of hers who had slapped her around. Rather than feel compassion toward her for having been abused, assuming this was true, I was outraged by her behavior toward me over something someone ELSE had done (so I was told).

    I made up my mind to confront her very strongly and verbally punish her for what I now believed she had been doing. When I got to her desk, I vocalized to begin my little tirade but the words I actually spoke came out differently. My anger somehow became replaced and the words were something like this (with the most compassionate tone I could put next to them):

    “I’m really not sure what I’ve done to make you dislike me so, if you’d like to share I’d like to know. But do know either way, that if I did say or do something, it was unintentional and probably a misunderstanding. I am, after all, still new here and you’ve worked here since the company was founded. I don’t need you to like me, but I would appreciate you dialing down all this and if you have questions about my paperwork, assuming that I am trying to do them correctly and giving me a chance to answer them before blasting off on me. I’m here to do a job, as are you, and I’d like to know what needs to happen to make it run smoothly from now on.”

    She didn’t immediately respond, just stared at me, so I walked away, thinking, now, I had REALLY done it abd bracing myself for my boss to ask me for a “quiet word, in private.” But I never heard about it again. Though I noticed from that point forward, she behaved in a more civil manner toward me. We never really did become friends but eventually we were able to exchange pleasantries.

    Not really sure the lesson I learned from this, other than to be assertive when I feel wronged and at least try to not explode in anger even when I feel rationally justified in doing so.

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    Miki Berkovich June 17, 2011, 7:01 pm

    This is such a brilliant post, Ross! Thanks alot for sharing this!

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