

If there’s one thing CEOs feel guilty about, “it’s laying people off,” said CEO coach Avery Roth.

“Thank them for their concerns and be empathetic, maybe they’re having a bad day,” said Angelos. However, these are things that aren’t as easy to do if someone’s berating you. “Stay calm,” said Téa Angelos, author of “Smart Moves, Simple Ways to Take Control of Your Life” (John Wiley & Sons Australia.) “Link back to a policy or procedure to make sure you’ve covered your bases, then offer the customer a pathway toward resolution.” So what options do you have in this kind of situation? Problematic, when we work in a world where employees are rated on how well they resolve situations independently. “Eventually, the customer got mean and rude, and I had to get my manager involved.” “The customer tried to haggle with me and tried to get a discount - I wasn’t authorized to offer anything of the sort,” said the Woodbridge, NJ, resident. “It was my first office job, and I had to send someone an invoice,” he said. Shutterstockĭavid Farkas, 48, encountered problems when he was just starting out in the world of work.īoss shares toxic sign urging staff not to ‘make friends at work’ Dealing with meanness Treat everyone with respect and kindness - you don’t know what kind of day they’re having.

Here’s how other tricky situations can be handled with dignity. “She’s the reason I’m where I am today,” said Pierre, now senior vice president of state programs at a major insurance company, an adjunct professor at Baruch, Columbia and NYU and author of “The Way Up: Climbing the Corporate Mountain as a Professional of Color” (Wiley). The owner was appreciative - but that wasn’t the only good thing that happened.Īnother customer, the COO of Empire BlueCross BlueShield, was also in the salon at the time and had observed what had happened, complimented Pierre on how he handled the situation and asked for his résumé. Pierre didn’t have any authority to do this, but he “took it upon myself because it was the right thing to do,” he said, but had to call the owner and explain what he’d done. Next, the hairdresser became apoplectic, so I assured him he would get his commission.” “To calm her down, I told her she wouldn’t have to pay, and she could come back have another stylist fix it. “The hairdresser totally botched the dye job, and the customer was in tears,” he recalled. An unhappy customer said her hair had been dyed the wrong color. Two decades ago, while studying finance, he took a job at a beauty salon.

Gen Z doesn’t understand these common workplace phrases: studyīrooklyn resident Errol Pierre, 40, isn’t the kind of guy who stays in his lane and minds his own business when he sees that something is going terribly wrong. I think a staffer left me an anonymous bad review - can I fight back? Can ChatGPT help you land your next dream job?Ĭan I work from home if a medical issue prevents me from commuting?
