Dealing with conflict

[savi83]

Hi everybody,

I recently had an incident at work where a visitor had become angry with me. I can't really go into specifics due to the nature of my work.

To them they believed that they were too important to follow the rules and wanted me to cut corners which I didn't. This made them really angry to the point that they were verbally abusive and threatening.

I tried to reason with the visitor to get him to understand but he twisted it in his mind that he was more important that our rules and processes.

At one point he even feigned a punch at me.

Throughout the incident I remained calm and tried to rationalise with him. I did not react to the aggressive cues but on reflecting back some of the words and actions were very aggressive and the situation could have easily become physical.

I do not know why I did not react to his aggression. I should have called the police but I didn't and I don't know where he developed this belief that he was so important.

Has anyone else had situations like this?

 

[LadyBird84]

No, but it sounds like you handled it well. I've had people yelling and screaming at me but never anything physical that was focused at just me thankfully. (Had violent situations at work but we'd stick together as a team.) Most of the time people are just angry with the system and it's not personal (and sometimes I even get it).

 

[LucyPurrs]

No but kudos to you for handling the situation so well- it could have easily escalated and you did just what was needed. Hope you tell your boss or supervisor about the incident so you will get the credit you deserve.

 

[Mr Allen]

Several years ago, I was working in an Oxfam Charity shop in Town, this young lad came in, bit of a brat he was really, wanted me to open the till and do stuff I wasn't allowed to do, so I basically told him to get lost and buzzed for the Manager to eject him from the premises.

Another time, while working in the same shop, I rumbled someone trying to pass a dud £20 note, I had one of those detector pens that can spot a fake note, used it and the note they'd given me turned up a dud, so I buzzed for the Boss, she came up and confirmed the note was a dud and sent for the Bobbies.

I was quite proud of myself for that.