Sometimes you have to do some uncomfortable things to make yourself clear on your boundaries.
People will sometimes act as if they understood you when you explained a boundary, but then continue to act the way they were acting even though you explained it made you uncomfortable. Why is that? Are they dumb? Do they just not care? Are they bad people? I’m actually not really sure why this happens, but I know it is extremely frustrating. Sometimes the worst part about putting boundaries is not the conversation you have to have, but the fact that you have to reinstate them every two minutes because people aren’t able to actually and fully understand them.
I hate the people that have this attitude of not really paying attention to you or what you say. Or maybe they do pay attention and just decide to do the complete opposite of what you asked for. I don’t know. But this is especially frustrating when it happens at work or with coworkers. You have to see that people every single day, so if they don’t stop doing that thing that bothers you, then it would mean that you will have to put up with that thing every single day, for years.
This story in u/JustNoCoworker is a great example of how to deal with this kind of person, especially when you have to work with them every day. The employee was tired of her coworker putting every work phone call in speaker mode in the office, as it made other people able to hear it and she felt like she wouldn’t be able to speak freely. So she gave her coworker a taste of her own medicine. She decided to vent all these coworker office secrets so that everyone was able to hear them, and she would finally understand how she feels when she puts the phone calls on speaker mode. It worked. So good for her! So maybe this is the way to deal with people like this: a taste of their own medicine works like a charm.
Author: Kayitsi.com
