Page 91 - Effective Communication Skills Mastery Bible 4 Books in 1 Boxset by Tuhovsky, Ian

that you’re not going to engage in their “jokes,” nor let them

get away with what they are doing one more time.

Christian blushed, become awkwardly silent for a few

seconds and said, “Oh… I’m really sorry, it was just this joke

we had, you know…” Well, I didn’t know. I just gave him a
three-second silent look. Then he shut up for the rest of our

meeting and never picked on me like that again. Of course,

this was a professional situation and this guy was rather smart

(he was probably jealous for some reason, maybe because I

was given better projects). It’s also possible that if you ask,
“Are you trying to insult me?” someone replies something

like, “YOU BET I AM!” As long as that person isn’t actively

aggressive, threatening you, etc., the best way to answer it is to

ask, “Interesting, why would you do that?” and then go from

there. People who ask more questions have more perceived
power in the relationship than those who answer them.

Coping with Nosy and Challenging People

There are many kinds of annoying and hard-to-deal-with

behaviors in people. Let me tell you another work situation

related story. In the very same office, there was this girl Kate.
She was nice to talk to from time to time, but unfortunately,

she never knew when to stop asking questions or where the

boundaries were. Replies like, “Stop asking. I won’t tell you,”

worked on her like red cloth works on a bull. Once, when I

just finished talking to my boss on some strategic decisions in
the HR department, she came to my cubicle and started asking

me, “Why did she want to talk to you?” Obviously, it wasn’t

her business and I had a lot of work to do. Knowing this girl

was very stubborn, inquisitive and much into gossiping, I

didn’t feel like giving her a report on my conversation with the