It's contagious!

I've been uber busy this past week - oh, I'm not complaining - it's fun stuff - seeing out of town family, filling jewelry orders, making new jewelry, doing massages, etc., etc.; but, sorry to say, there's not always enough time to do everything I want, so I haven't had time to blog. I have had such a frustrating ongoing situation this week, though, that has made me stop and think about how I deal with other people. I won't bore you with all the details, but I had to deal with someone clear across America with a financial business problem. This person called me at home on Saturday afternoon, and was snotty and not helpful. I'm rather ashamed to say, I got snotty right back. I was right and finally vindicated today - however, I realized how I almost instantaneously responded to her attitude with exactly the same. Now, given the chance to react again to this same person on the phone on Monday, I did have enough wherewithall to breathe in, realize that going down this path was profiting me nothing, and I switched roles - I became nice, apologetic, etc., (as if I was, in fact, the customer service rep) and I saw her attitude soften just a tad. In the end (today) I had to conference call her with another person from her company, and, just as a sidebar, she was the nicest person in the world when we were all three on the phone. All of that aside, I realized again how our world has changed - when I held my first part time job at the Karmelkorn shop in the Pekin Mall when I was in high school, we were told, "the customer is always right". "Be nice". "Speak kindly". "Listen to what they have to say". Those words could use to be heard by customer service people again, I think. Also, I got a little insight into myself - I don't like to be told what to do; I don't like to be told I'm wrong when I know I'm right; and I don't like to be snipped at - for any reason, plain and simple. Hmmmm. This final thought - I didn't like that I reacted at her level and became snotty - in the end, she had shown me who was the snottiest and tied up my money all week long - I suspect just because she could. Next time (and I hope there is no next time), I hope I can take that breath and not react but calculate my appropriate response to however I'm being talked to.