Monday, April 15, 2013

Is a Grown Man’s Feelings Similar to a Toddler???

I know that I had stated that this blog would not be for complaining but today is one of those days when I need to vent a bit…

Today I had an incident that I think is worth writing about. To reveal a little bit about myself, I work in Public Safety. If you have never met someone who is in Public Safety (i.e. police officer, fire fighter, sheriff, dispatcher, EMS and etc.) you probably know that there is a distinct personality that typically goes along with the job. People in this field tend to be rather direct and confrontational – this is a good thing. However, there is a line that my colleagues and I know should never be crossed…you never have a verbal confrontation with a colleague while others are present. Today that line was crossed.

This morning I was at the Law Enforcement Center taking care of a few things and I was confronted by an officer who apparently had an issue with the way I had been handling my position. This officer is neither above nor below me in the scheme of things. In fact, one of us is employed by the county and the other by a local city, thus we have no authority over each other at all. However, he felt that he needed to unload two years worth of frustrations in a manner of minutes. To top it off there were other people present as he was having his irrational freak-out. I am usually fairly good with confrontations, but today I was taken so off guard that I didn’t even know how to respond. After he yelled for a few minutes he appeared to feel better and then left. It was all rather strange – I was utterly flabbergasted!

A while later I returned to my office and decided to send him a quick email – I simply asked him to swing by my office today so we could chat…I was determined to use some of my social-psych magic on him to find out what was really bothering him.

As it turns out he had been feeling left out. He apparently thought that I hated him and I didn’t want to work with him because whenever I am at the Law Enforcement Center, I only talk to a few specific people and then leave. Really???? I didn’t realize we were back pre-school.

So I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes even adults will lash out irrationally when they need attention or feel left out.

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