I confronted someone and it went like this...

SilentAndShy

Well-known member
So, I'm not a confrontational person. If this was a fight/flight situation, I'd do the latter everytime if there was an argument/fight in my personal life or if I was out and about and something like that happened.

But at work, I kinda feel I have to even though I'm shit at confronting people - I have to try and live up to my colleagues' impressions of a stereotypical bloke being all comfortable with challenging people etc..

So, my colleague returns to work to find the Polish shop next door have parked across our parking bay for a delivery (not the first time its happened) so she's told it'll be 5 minutes and they'd move. So she waits, starts to have a snack and 10mins go by. Nothing happens. The shop closes its back door so it seems the delivery is done but lorry isn't moved to let my colleague back in. She calls and asks if I could wait in her car whilst she goes and lets rip at them but I offer to avoid her the hassle. Because they've done it before, I'm mildly pissed. I walk next door and ask them to move the van for my colleague. The Polish lady says OK, so she tells her boss (big fat bloke) who comes and we have a chat. His broken English, from what I could make out, was him moaning about having to park on the road for deliveries. I replied, that's not my problem but shift the lorry please. I don't lose my rag to the point that I'm swearing or raising my voice but he was a tad aggressive with his tone. The lorry was moved and I was like - yup, cheers, but a brief glance to say "don't do that again please" and off I went. My colleague said the lorry moved shortly after I went in so it might have been just a coincidence rather than them shitting themselves at the sight of at Mad Me lol!

I think I stuttered abit because the guy wasn't making sense with his English but doubt he noticed!
 
I know EXACTLY how this feels. I often feel guilty after being assertive. But when it goes well you feel great.

Awesome :)
 

planemo

Well-known member
Well done, being stern when needed, but not abusive is something that I think is necessary to survive in the outside world. :applause:
 

Stargirl

Active member
It sounds like you did a great job! :) I have a problem with stuttering too when I have to confront customers about something where I work. But over time, when I get the same problem over and over again, I've just learned to roll out my response. I think a lot of the anxiety from confronting people comes from not knowing what to say or do. But really, once you get used to a certain confrontation, it's not so bad :)

Last week I had a customer complain that he didn't use his rewards points before the expiration date. He acted like we owed him something, LMBO. We post the expiration dates in our ad, on the reciepts, and several places by the checkout lanes. So that's what I told him. And since he wasn't leaving, I called a manager over and she explained the same thing. Basically, just repeat the same stuff over and over and say, a firm "Sorry" with a "Yeah, I really can't do anything about it" face :p
 
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SilentAndShy

Well-known member
I had a vague outline of what I wanted to say but in the midst and the panic of the conversation, forgot to ask him to move the car slightly in the future so colleagues could get in/out but as mentioned, it's experience to build on.
 
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