Rude & Evil

The whole of last week has been very intense for me as deadlines are getting shorter and work load bottle-necked. That, however, really wasn't the main thing that drove me up the wall. What threw me off-guard completely is the demeanour of the clients I have to face. They are counter-productive, evil and simply just damn rude.

I can re-frame my mindset from my "belief" that they seemed aggressive, mean, nasty because they are busy and highly stressed to combat any negative thoughts from my end. After all, I'm being professionally trained to "re-frame my mindset" each time I conjure up "beliefs" in my mind. Not so much of a "belief" anymore since these clients actually did behave in a certain way and some of their actions in the supposedly "discussion" meetings include:

• Outburst of "impossible!" and banging on the table at the same time without rhyme nor reason as we flashed our very first slide and not having a chance to first explain. We were not aware of what exactly it was that she saw that had seemed "impossible to her. She didn’t quite explain herself and could not give a straight answer to what was wrong.
• Rude interruptions. This happened all the time during the course of the meeting as they softly whisper and giggle like little kids between themselves while we are presenting.
• Rude interruptions and sheer disrespect also include them cutting us in mid-sentence and even walking out of the room in the midst of trying to answer the questions THEY had raised
• Threats and intimidation, both verbal (“I cannot trust you anymore, we’ll have to go for a pitch) and non-verbal (banging the table, raising voices, flailing arms that suggest “attack me if you dare”)
• Sarcastic jokes and teasing used as insult-delivery systems
• Snide remarks in local language which in Thai, will sound much much worse to the ears
• Status slaps to my junior subordinates as an intention to humiliate their victims
• Dirty looks
• Treating people as if they are invisible.
• Speaking and questioning in Thai directly to my subordinate and using it as a weapon to bully her and dismissed her as if she’s stupid if she can’t answer when they know very well I don’t understand the language and that I may have the answers for them
• Going off on tangents on things which they know is not going to be discussed in this one meeting based on earlier agreement.
• Rather than admitting they don’t understand it and seek clarification, they dismissed it as “the slides doesn’t add any value” and refused to give any suggestions when probed or when we suggest other alternatives.
• Changed their mind several times, shot down all of our recommendations, and blamed us for not recommending it while expecting us to rationalize what THEY want even when we disagree with them
• Harsh words on what they’d like to see next time and ended the meeting by just walking out of the room without even a simple thank you, considering that we have worked through the night for several nights to get the really heavy work done for them within a short time-frame
  

It amazes me how people seem to lose their professional etiquette as the continue to climb up the ladder and abuse their position as they take a ride on their power-trip. No one should be subjected to such "abuse" and sheer disrespect in any line of work. These emerging managers and directors of the corporate world need to wake up and realize that this is not the most effective way of managing people. Insane.