WHEN PEOPLE ARE ANGRY, DON’T JOIN THEM

Sometimes people are angry for no reason and view you as a punching bag. People respond to stressful situations differently. Most people can’t take the pressure. Many people become something else under pressure. In the heat of the moment, it’s not your job to find out why. It’s your job to prevent things from escalating. I remember boarding an airplane with my guitar and a carry-on. The first flight attendant greeted me politely, and we laughed like old friends. The second flight attendant, a man, started screaming at me from the back of the plane as he charged his way to the front, “You only can take one bag. You have to check on one, and I know you don’t want to check on the guitar!” After screaming at me, a colleague asked him a question, and on the turn of a dime, he transformed into a pleasant person. Have you been in a situation where a partner, friend, or colleague is upset with you but as someone else enters he or she smiles with that person as if nothing is wrong? It happens to the best of us. I laughed with the first flight attendant about it, who said “I don’t know why he’s acting that way. Maybe it’s because he’s a man. I don’t know.” After a while, the pleasant stewardess told me to put my bag in one of the empty overhead bins without checking it. A few minutes later, I returned to my seat, and the angry flight attendant greeted me like a new person. “How are you, did everything work out well? Do you need anything? If you need anything, let me know.” I smiled but was amazed. At that moment I realized that when people are angry, don’t join them. In most cases, they are mad about something you are unaware of, and sometimes you become a punching bag as you enter their domain.