A long time ago a coworker found me helping another coworker with her computer and I could see she was upset. I said to her standing at the door that I would be right there and I could address whatever the issue was, but she immediately started to yell at me before I could talk to her privately.
She said some very mean things and the person that I was helping was shocked and surprised. Then she left and I apologized to the other coworker. I said that I was sorry that she had to experience that and the coworker that I was helping apologized to me and said that I didn’t deserve that and we continued with what we were doing.
Why am I sharing this now? One of the things that I do with coworkers is to live in the moment and if there is a problem I take them aside and talk to them privately. I explain how it might help the team if they are open to trying different things and generally the conversation goes well. They are open to trying new things, and life goes on more efficiently at work.
Now thankfully I haven’t had anyone yell at me for a few years which I appreciate. It was funny that a hiring manager said in the interview that they have rich people who are employees and they don’t have much patience and expect a quick solution. I told him that I worked with Billionaires and I am very familiar with how demanding rich people can be. It was a warning that the people they deal with are difficult, and honestly, it didn’t sell me on that company. When I looked at the Glassdoor ratings, they were low and mostly negative so that was enough to make my decision. I don’t work in environments where the employees are abusive.
Everyone deserves respect, even if you are the new guy on the team or low on the totem pole. In companies that have toxic cultures of no respect, no one performs their best. The rest of the day I forgave that person who yelled at me. I avoided her the rest of the time I worked there and that certainly didn’t help teamwork.