Why Do Coworkers Need to be Rude?

The Split Second-In Consideration of Others in These Trying Times or Look Up from the Phone

Here I go again: I am still trying to get my unpublished book “The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others” published. Once again within 2023, I have tended to become discouraged about the project. That comes easily to me, and I am not proud to admit that. However, I have not given up. I appreciate the encouragement of friends, loved ones, and my agent/coach to “keep at it.” I still hear from agents and people who care about me with words like, “Those who need to read your book won’t read it, and those who read your book don’t need to read it.” Oh well.

I just left work for a governmental agency this past week. I was pleased to be selected. I waited five months to see If I would be chosen. I was thrilled when I was selected. The work was to have lasted a year beginning in July. I will not give out the name of the agency in this writing. My close friends know what it is; however, it would be inappropriate to name it here. I had high hopes for this assignment even though it paid a daily nominal fee. I was jubilant to take public transportation to and from the work assignment. Then after a month, it simply did not work out much to my extreme disappointment. However, I was about the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth person to leave the agency. For me, the reason was two of the vital persons involved could not utilize what I call Split Second strategies (of course, people do not know what I am writing of here; I hope they will know soon enough, however.

The two people I write of here, the leader of the group and the administrator (or assistant, I never knew exactly what this person’s title is), continued to snap, browbeat, or become quite short with the people around them if the task those people were performing was not right or even just a bit out of sorts of what was supposed to be undertaken. The Split Second uses Ms. Manners as a source when she said, “There is no excuse for rudeness anytime or anywhere.” She was correct. Is each one of us going to be rude to someone else some time in our lives? Of course, we are going to be rude many times throughout our lives, but we need to take responsibility for that rudeness and apologize for it. I have apologized so many times for being rude to others that I would be a rich man if I were to receive a nickel for every time this has happened. I have a theory that certain people do not begin to realize how rude they are to people sometimes or quite often. They need to be “called out on it.”

It is especially sad when the rude people or others for them make excuses like, “Oh that’s the way I am,” or “You’re just being too sensitive” when they get called out for their rudeness. These are the moments when each one of us needs to think about what is coming out of our mouths when we deal with others. At this agency, the rudeness was so “thick,” I could not bear it anymore, and I felt I had to leave once and for all. It was not worth my time and effort to work with this group as two people made it unbearable, at least for me, but there were others who felt the same way. I am still sad about the whole situation, but I will move on.

 All right, I am not going to give up trying to get this book published.