Ways to Deal with Annoying People

Introduction Unfortunately, we can’t get along with everyone. And it’s a fact that throughout our life, we’ll be in situations where we have to communicate with some of those people we just can’t stand.

Annoying People Examples Annoying boss. An ingratiating friend. A spineless co-worker. A difficult client. An abrasive in-law.

Important As much as we might like to run away and hide when we see these people coming, we’ll often need to work with them.

What Should We Do? We don’t always have to be nice – professional and to-the-point will often get the job done just as well.

Strategies Annoying People We have prepared some strategies to help you to deal with annoying people. It is important that you have a little discipline to make sure you can handle such kind of people.

Strategy - Listen A lot of conflicts are based in misunderstandings. It can be easy enough to tune someone out when they annoy you; the trick is to use careful questioning to focus the other person on the topic at hand so they give you what you need and avoid straying too far.

Strategy Keep Your Cool It’s tempting to want to argue with annoying people. Don’t do that! Unless they’re wrong about something that directly and materially affects you. Save the debates for when you’re with friends whose opinions matter to you.

Strategy Be Clear About Boundaries You don’t have to be friends with everyone, which means you don’t have to do favors for everyone who asks.

Strategy Fight Fire With Ice As hard as it might seem to do, when someone is arguing, the best thing is to sit quietly and let them spend himself ranting and raving, and then ask if he’d like to schedule a time to discuss the matter more calmly and return to whatever you were doing.

Strategy Close the Door While you may have to interact with people you don’t care for, remember that your time is your own and don’t let other people, take control of your time. Even annoying people – tend to respect the time of people who make a clear showing that they take their own time very seriously.

Strategy You’re Valuable - Remember Don’t be afraid to remind annoying people that you are valuable, which means they need you as much as you need them. People that are annoying, difficult, selfish, boring, or otherwise a chore to deal with are that way for reasons that have nothing to do with you.

Conclusion It’s not your job to fix, engage with, or indulge annoying people. Don’t worry abut figuring them out or correcting them. Worry instead about how you’re going to manage their annoyances without affecting you.