Attitudes

[sobrique]

Have you ever encountered a person that just pisses you off?

There's a few at the place where I work. I try and avoid them, because I know each time I'm involved in a conversation with them, they're going to wind me up.

I'm just not quite sure why there's typically nothing overly 'different' about the requests they put in it's just there's something about the way they talk to you that puts you on edge, and therefore less likely to deal well with them in future.

An example is here, this is an email I recieved:
"Hi Ed,
any chance of looking at the ASP Error 115 problem which stops us viewing reports? I really need to be able to run off some Job Info reports by tomorrow


thanks
john
"

But you see, my automatic thought is 'no, go away'. I'm not entirely sure why, since from anyone else a 'would you mind looking at $problem' email usually is ... well if not well recieved, at least something I accept.

Oh well, when I stop fuming (and again, I'm still not entirely sure why) I'll sort it out. Probably. If I can figure out what the cause is _this_ time.

I still don't know why though - there are a few people who just rub me up the wrong way. I come into contact with them, and get almost childish when dealing with them.

Am I alone in experiencing this?

Comments

[cerberic.livejournal.com]

Also, to add to other analyses so far, he used the phrase "any chance" as to imply that the chance would be small even if it existed, and also suggests that he's asked before and is only now getting impatient (regardless of whether he's actually asked before). If you substitute in "Could you look at" for "Any chance of looking", it reads a whole lot differently.

The "Could you" version acknowledges that whilst you are willing and able to do your job, you may be busy and you can't fix a problem of which you are unaware. The "Any chance" version suggests that they're having to pester you do it, and that you're lazy (from the implication that the chance is small assuming it exists) and/or rather be 'messing about' on the computer than actually solving their problem for them. Other people's problems also fall under 'messing about', of course.

Basically, "Could you" is a polite question, "Any chance" is an impatient demand disguised as a question by the simple expedience of putting a question mark on the end. Someone should inform this 'John' that a question mark does not a question make. If he doesn't comprehend the explanation, "Understand now, you idiot?" should be a good empirical example. :)

Funnily enough, it's the same problem found at school. Children don't like something someone has said to them, and so go to their headmaster/mistress and tell them what's happened. To which, they reply with "well, what did they say?". The problem being, of course, is that it isn't what they said, but how they said it.