Anger
Have you ever met someone who didn’t know how to direct his/her anger? I’m learning the hard way that there are many people around me that have displayed this problem.
For example, someone called today to see about a check they were expecting in the mail that had not yet come. When I asked the person who was issuing the payment, they blew up and just yelled at me, “How could they have not received the check!? I swear, some people are so stupid….etc.” Questioning me with an accusatory tone, I sat there confused…but yet in a very familiar position. I could do nothing but sit quietly as they stalked out the door.
Not more than 5 minutes had passed before this angry person stormed back in the door, demanding the keys to my car. Since they did not volunteer a reason for confiscating my car, I asked nicely where they were going. “To the city,” they said sharply. I asked again for more specifics, knowing that others would be questioning me later as to their whereabouts. Glaring at me as if to say “How dare you ask! I don’t have to tell you anything,” I explained why I needed to know (as if the fact that they were taking my car wasn’t enough).
This was the least of the situation. But I think it’s a decent example of the kind of person I’m talking about. The kind of person that gets angry and then makes a mission out of finding a person to blame, so as to avoid acknowledging that the only person warranting blame is themselves.
I think an unspoken part of my job as a receptionist is to absorb all the anger thrown my way. To just sit and take it so that it’s not thrown at the wrong person (someone who would not let it slide so easily). I’ve seen what happens when that kind of anger is pitched at the wrong person…two people were recently fired as a result.
I sat and thought a while about what I do when I am rubbed the wrong way…then I realized that this…right now…this is what I do. I write out my frustrations…I let out my anger on paper…abuse it with words, rather than abusing the people around me. I suppose that’s the way God planned it…he made some people to be accusers and some people to be absorbers. In the long run…I wonder who really got the short end of the stick.
