If you have to interact with someone who is obnoxious and overbearing, how do you do it?

My colleague is this person. I have this week off work for a break from her! Will watch this for advice myself.

For the record, I ain’t hating on men here. The guy whom I’m dealing with is the biggest jerk. Even dudes can’t stand him.

I keep my distance as much as possible and interact verbally as little as possible.

Belittle them at every available oppurtunity, toy with them, chew them up & spit the buggers out.
Leave them a quivering mess, shirking in dark corners with only themselves & the bitter taste of failure for company…mwahhh!

@Aster How about if you have to work in close proximity with them?

@ucme Fancy being a girl next week and taking over my job?

@Headhurts So long as I can wear the uniform, stockings…I must have stockings :D

@ucme I don’t wear stockings for work, but if you deal with my colleague I will get you a years supply

We have one really negative nancy that is also a control freak know-it-all (ironic?) and we are actually pretty good friends. She goes off on tangent’s but after I started listening to what she was saying, she actually could probably run this company pretty well, but no one ever listens and nothing gets fixed.

@Headhurts I’m all over it, beauty salon, here comes the diva bitch queen…with hairy legs.

@Headhurts I would say as little as possible; in fact, I’d just nod my head as she or he was speaking. I’d use words all the time such as, “ok” “uh=huh” , shake my head back and forth for “no.” Then I’d develop stomach problems because I’d be running against my true feelings of frying pan to the skull .

I marshal all of my thoughts and arguments in advance. If the other person makes an out-of-line remark, I call them on it. I say something like, “Please don’t make personal remarks. Let’s stick to the topic at hand.” The I cut it as short as possible.

@Aster Love that answer.

@KNOWITALL Think about how frustrating it must be for her…

I don’t know that I have a lot of direct experience with this, but after a week in India to refresh my memory, I can tell you how a lot of Indians do that with those of us from the West who must often seem this way to them:

Nod a lot. Be very agreeable and respectful. Take lots of notes. Smile all the time. Be sure to do exactly as they say every minute that they’re watching you. Don’t commit to anything in writing, unless the writing is very unclear, ambiguous and riddled with mistakes that make it essentially meaningless.

Then just do whatever the hell you were going to do anyway. It makes life simpler for you, and frustrates the hell out of them.

@uberbatman That was actually my point, a lot of time people aren’t being nasty just to be nasty, there’s almost always an underlying reason, so I take the time to find out what it is. That makes them human, and I can relate usually.

My friend CWOTUS just said everything that I was more-or-less going to say, so saved me a bunch of thinking and typing.

It is an old cliche’: “Sometimes, you just have to rise above certain people”.

But many times it is absolutely the best approach. Some of these clucks will be too dense to even get that they’re being ‘handled’.

But you (and many other people) will know…

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As little as possible. When it’s unavoidable in a business setting, I humor them and go on about my business. Unless, as @marinelife said, they say something so bad I must call them out on it.

When it’s personal, I’m afraid I’m not able to be quite so detached. I will tell them flat out they’re being an asshole, then walk away or hang up the phone.

Kill them with kindness. Though, I’m usually the difficult one. :)

I have a hard time dealing with people like this, and it’s nearly impossible for me to humor them. So I usually nod a few times, roll my eyes, and walk away.

“If you have to interact with someone who is obnoxious and overbearing, how do you do it?”

I let them know straight up, privately, with kindness, that I don’t work well with “obnoxious overbearing control freaks”.

Then I say, “This is my perception of you”.

Then I ask, “Can you help me overcome my perception of you? Because I’d really like to work well together”.

Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Try to bury your negative feelings about this person and look upon it as an opportunity for learning how to deal with similar types (maybe worse) whom you’ll surely have to deal with the rest of your life, whether in your career or socially.

He is a neighbour where I am staying and I finally told him (after coming over here to bother me for the third time), that I needed to get stuff done. “Well, I have to go! Have a good one, Bob”. Most people let him talk.

I also threw my hands up in the air giving the “what the hell are you doing sign?” when he kept walking across the property. He saw me and got the hint. Now he’s using the road.