Friday, April 23, 2010

Pains In the Ass

People, probably, well certainly, including me, can be pains in the ass.

Everyone should act just like we expect them to act, right? Ain’t going to happen of course.

But, what do you do when you have someone going out of their way to be a pain in the ass in your life? Ignore, engage? Be passive, aggressive? Mix it up?

Professionally, I know the answer to the question, I get paid nicely to play the game. And, I should probably apply the professional approach to the personal pain in the ass; but, it’s not as easy. It makes me appreciate my corporate clients’ occasional distress; and, it makes me remember why I try not to represent actual people who have the unfortunate trait of taking things personally.

6 comments:

Jenn said...

awwwww! I love your approach. How much did Doc pay you to say that?

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

I play a mean game of "avoid the pain in the ass" myself. I have tried engaging, but that only annoyed me and didn't make that person any less of a pain in the ass.

Lifehiker said...

Rocky told Bullwinkle, who was being pestered by a "pain in the ass", to "pay no attention to kangaroos". He didn't mean that Bullwinkle should try to avoid the person, but rather to not let the problem consume him. Easier said than done, but it's good advice.

I love the characterization of the pestering person as a "kangaroo", always bouncing around. It helps me laugh when I think of such people.

fermicat said...

My general strategy is avoidance. Avoid pain-in-the-ass people and/or situation whenever possible. Yup, I'm a big wuss about that.

Jeni said...

Boy Dave! Do I ever wish you could have been here, in my house, this afternoon as I was trying to explain a few things to my son along the relationship lines. Sure could have used your knowledge, your reasoning as expressed in this post to try to get the points I was making across to my son! Sometimes, when people -and all of us do this from time to time (Just that some of us do this more often than others) and stir the pot, become a royal PIA and my theory is don't take everything literally, personally, let things slide off the old back now and again or as much as you can anyway! The boy has this idea that he should always be able to avoid or evade all types of conflict and no, life is never quite that darned simple. Singing now -I'm a duck, I'm a duck!

Dave said...

Jeni, I write OK, I'm not all that good at the doing part.