I work in a ‘front line’ job where I deal with members of the public. When I started exactly a year ago, I was excited. I love people and the sound of my own voice so I was looking forward ‘to the challenge’ of my new job. Part of my duties is to request background information from applicants and some of these enquiries can touch on sensitive matters. One ‘gentleman’ reacted badly to a letter I wrote to him. He came into the office and demanded to know why I was writing to him at his parents’ address since he hadn’t lived there in eight years. Luckily there was a two foot wide counter separating us. He seemed drunk judging from the behaviour and the smell of him. For the first ten minutes of the ‘conversation’ he yelled at me while I stood there waiting for him to draw breath. Having dished out my share of bad behaviour in the past I am no stranger to unreasonable behaviour. The only difference this time was my being at the receiving end of it. Not only that but all my colleagues within a 40 foot radius were witnesses to my unsuccessful dealing with a crying, hysterical, rude and smelly man.

My head spun with the humiliation. I thought I was going to pass out. I clutched the counter with both hands. After ten minutes of ranting the man collapsed into a chair and cocked his head to one side to hear what I had to say for myself. I timidly asked him why he put his parents’ address on his application if he didn’t live there. That set him off again. I waited for the storm to pass. I endured some more moments of sneering abuse until we ‘agreed’ to correspond via his new address and he fell out the door in disgust. He was gone. Subdued and thoughtful I returned to my desk. One of my colleagues looked at me in sympathy and said, “He only left himself down and if it had got really bad, I would have come out to you”. I decided I needed some air and went for a short walk. Outside in the daylight, I realised I was actually OK. The experience was awful but I had survived and I was fine. I also realised that the man’s verbal attack on me was not personal. He is angry with the whole world; I just happened to draw the short straw that day.

Since this revelation rude people don’t bother me any more. Politeness greases the wheels and gets you through even the direst crisis. When I encounter such people, I embrace the rude, the condescending and the arrogant for they colour my day with their stories. I am not advocating rudeness: it makes life even harder than it is but I enjoy it for what it is – someone else’s tantrum.

By Geraldine Blake