Do You Let Customers And Clients Verbally Abuse You?
How to define your “red line” and develop a response system
I was twenty-three and terrified of losing my job. I was working at the front desk of a hotel, a famous one. We were busy. The lines were long, and people were impatient.
A guest walks up to the counter and calls me an asshole. Instead of defending myself, I ignored it, pretended I didn’t hear it. I asked, “can I help you?”
He then pulled the power move. He threatened my livelihood. “How would you like it if I called your GM and told him what an asshole you were? My company spends over $100,000 a year here.”
He then mumbled some other insults I don’t remember. I ignored him until he finally mentioned the reason for his visit.
To this day, that incident kills me. I work myself up into a frenzy just thinking about it. Why didn’t I stand up for myself? I was young. His threat to complain to the GM felt real. I convinced myself that I took it like a man and protected my job.
But there’s a bright side
The memory and shame of that incident reanimate in my mind every time I find myself on the receiving end of that type of behavior.
