Having someone be rude right to your face can be infuriating. When this happens, we’ll often give the culprit an equally ill-mannered reply or return their snarky comments. Reacting this way will have you thinking about the encounter for the rest of the day, obsessing over what you should and shouldn’t have said.
In these situations, we all want to be the bigger person. Being rude to someone who has been disrespectful to you makes you no better than they are. To be the best that you can be in these situations, this is how to politely deal with disrespectful people.
Take a Moment
When someone is disrespectful toward you, don’t react straight away. Responding immediately makes you far more likely to say something spiteful or immature. This can cause the conversation to escalate into a full-blown argument.
Take a moment to breathe before replying. Count to ten and then choose your words wisely. You’re unlikely to say something that you’ll regret later if you think before you speak.
Kill them with Kindness
It’s so easy to fight fire with fire. When someone is being blatantly disrespectful, we can often be quick to return it. This, however, is not the best way to deal with rude people. The only thing that you will achieve this way is making them feel dignified in their terrible behavior.
When someone is rude to you, be kind to them. Tell them “I’m sorry you feel that way” instead of telling them that they’re wrong or ignorant. By doing so, you’ll avoid adding fuel to the flame and force the situation to die down.
Understand Their Perspective
No one on this earth has gone through life saying only kind things. Even the nicest people in the world have been guilty of being rude at some point, no matter how courteous they normally are. During your life, you’ve been the disrespectful person in some situation at least once.
Try to understand where the other person is coming from. In most cases, they don’t mean to be rude to you. They’re probably upset about something else and are taking it out on you. Although this doesn’t excuse their behavior, knowing their reasoning can help you to react more calmly.
Laugh it Off
One of the best tactics that you can employ in a tense situation is to brush it off as if it were nothing. Rather than becoming annoyed or upset, simply laugh about how ridiculously the other person is behaving.
If you let someone’s disrespectful comments and rude behavior wash over you, you’ve succeeded in being the more mature person. You’re proving to them that their words can’t hurt you because you are too strong to take it seriously.
Walk Away
Sometimes, disrespectful people just want to be angry. No matter what you say or do, they will continue to fight against you. In times like these, there is no way for you to win by staying there.
Don’t waste your emotional energy on someone who won’t listen. Decide when it’s time to walk away from them and leave them to their anger.
It can be extremely difficult to deal with someone who isn’t showing you the respect that you deserve. Their negative energy can cause you to react badly out of anger. With a little effort, we can all learn to be a bit more patient in these situations and react with maturity and dignity.
How do you deal with disrespectful people? Share this article if you think that being polite is the best way to respond to them.
