Rude People

If someone came to your home and was insulting to your family, you would probably ask them to stop, or leave. Insult my wife in my home and you’ll get a flying lesson off my porch. Similarly in a business situation deliberately rude people should not be tolerated. They should be politely told how to modify their behavior and if they don’t comply they should be told to leave. No one should be required to endure abuse.

A few years ago I helped run an annual fundraising event that involved over 1,000 participants with nearly 600 of them camped on site for the weekend. Almost all of them were bikers. On Saturday morning the Security Manager, Mr. H and I arrived at the front gate and found the admission volunteer dealing with an abusive lady. The volunteer (a first timer) was trying to explain the new requirement that everyone had to wear a wristband to be on site. The woman was indignantly, loudly, in very colorful language, expressing that she had attended the event for years and didn’t need to do anything. Anybody that mattered knew her. She was also calling into question the intellect and parentage of the volunteer. Mr. H stepped up and reasonably pointed out that everyone was wearing the bracelets indicating his and mine. This elicited another hissy-fit of profanity.

Mr. H said to the volunteer, “Okay. Don’t giver her a bracelet, give her money back. She’s barred.” The woman shrieked “What? You can’t do that.” Mr. H loomed close to her looking grim, pointed at the sign that read “NO PETS. NO KIDS. NO ATTITUDES.” And growled “Leave!” she vanished.

I guess I should mention that Mr. H was about 6’ tall, around 300 lbs and looked like a tattooed, bearded, Shrek dressed in denim and black leather.

Mr. H knew the woman from various past events. She always acted as if the normal rules of behavior didn’t apply to her. She was rude and disruptive. Mr. H realized that the revenue gained from that person was not going to be worth the disturbance if everyone was exposed to her foul behavior. Mr. H made the correct decision to fire the customer.

Not everyone has Mr. H’s physical gifts for handling rude people. A small average person isn’t going to be able to intimidate with a hard look and a few words. Sometimes a sense of humor is an even better tool.

When I was a young fellow working in a plumbing supply warehouse my duties included restocking returned parts. One client looked at his return slip and said “Hey you didn’t put that pipe on here.” I told him we can’t take returns on cut pipe and pointed to the large sign in the loading area that said this. He blew up. He immediately became abusive, called me all sorts of things and demanded to see the manager. I took him to the order desk and introduced him to the manager Mr. J.

The customer was a large man that looked like John Wayne. Mr. J was small and dapper, dressed in his usual 3-piece suit. The customer immediately began to bluster and cause a disturbance. When the man paused, Mr. J calmly told him we can’t take back cut pipe.

“Well you can take that pipe and stick it up your behind” yelled the customer.

Mr. J looked a bit sad and then very clearly and audibly said, “Unfortunately there is a fellow with a twelve foot farm gate and two rolls of barbed wire ahead of you.”

Silence. Then the 20 other customers burst into spontaneous laughter and applause. The abusive customer departed taking his pipe with him. J not only realized he had to fire the customer, he did it in such a way that he immediately repaired the disruption the outburst had caused.

Dealing with rude people is STRESSFUL. They are often UNCOOPERATIVE and this is UNPLEASANT. Often the CONCEIT that leads them to believe that accepted rules don’t apply to them causes CONFUSION and CHAOS. Really, they ought to KNOW better.

Rude people SUCK.