From time to time, we all lose our mind a little. It’s cool to have emotions and it’s perfectly okay to have moments of anger every once in a while, but it’s not cool when you project that anger onto everyone else. We’re all just normal human beings trying to get by in the world day-to-day, and sometimes our own thought bubbles can give us a sense of entitlement and causes us to behave in pretty crappy ways. If you find yourself doing any of the following, you might need to chill out, and be a nicer human.
- Yelling at call centre/retail employees. Yes, we all hate it when something doesn’t go perfectly and smoothly in our lives, but calling into a business or taking it out face to face on the front line employee isn’t going to resolve your problem any differently than if you would have just been rational. That employee is just like you, and they have just as many stresses and worries in their lives without having a complete stranger cuss them out to make their point heard. You can get your point across without being a jerk (and you’re more likely to get your way if you’re nicer, too).
- Talking stuff about colleagues. We all hate it when someone else screws up, and it’s totally okay to be frustrated by it, but please keep it to yourself. Not only is it unprofessional to vent at work about another staff member, but it’s also useless. There are nicer and easier ways to deal with situations of error in your work life. You can talk to your superior about strategies to improve going forward or you can make the suggestions directly to the person who made the error. Just be nice about it.
- Coming down on someone when they know they failed. Whether it’s your spouse, child, friend or a colleague, mistakes happen. No one is perfect. Instead of pointing out how someone sucked, encourage them to try again in new ways or don’t say anything at all. As the saying goes, if you don’t have anything nice to say… Shut it.
- Traffic and road rage issues. Okay, so I’ll start by saying that modern road rage is a very real and scary thing. I once saw a video of two girls who nearly got ran off the road by a woman and they ended up having to call the police and were lead to waiting squad cars by dispatch all the while getting chased by the erratic driver. Road rage is NOT worth it. It’s one thing to mutter “what the hell?” under your breath at driver mistakes, but don’t flip the bird out the window or poke your head out and start yelling. You need to chill not only to be nicer, but to keep yourself safe.
- Fighting on the Internet. Internet trolls are everywhere. Don’t feed them or be one. I often see comment threads on viral posts where complete strangers begin attacking each other, and most of the time, it’s grown ass adults calling people truly nasty names. This is cyber bullying. Stop it.
- Not offering empathy or compassion when it’s needed. Sometimes, we’re so fixated on our own problems that we fail to see others are struggling with their own. The reality is, we’re all dealing with our own grievances. Everyone experiences the same emotional and inconvenient pile of life poop in varied forms, and the weight of it feels the same to everyone. You should offer empathy when people are struggling — we’re all in this game of life together and we’re all screwing up from time to time; so chill out, and be a little nicer about it.
