Hi all:
I'm having a time with myself today, one minute wanting to beat myself up and the next thinking I did ok, considering. Here's what happened:
I was working away on a particularly challenging account when a woman opens my office door, sticks her head into my office and asks: "No guard dog?" (sometimes I have my big doggie with me so I keep a sign on the door, which she must have read: "Warning: Guard dog on duty").
"Not today" I answer cheerily. She steps in, plunks her binder and stuff ontop of my paperwork on my desk and says: "I need to speak with whoever looks after the hydro account".
I respond: "Regarding?"
She repeats: "I need to speak with the person who takes care of the hydro bill."
I say: "We're not interested in buying hydro from any other company but thankyou...."
She pipes up: "I'm not selling anything so how do you know you're not interested?"
I say: "Sum it up in one sentence please because I really don't think I'm interested and I don't want to waste your...."
She yoddles: "Let's put it this way, with our company, you're fully protected".
Now I know I'm not interested and I say: "I'm sorry but we're not interested."
She crows: "Well you should be interested. Why wouldn't you be interested?"
Me, starting to feel irritated: "Look, I'm sorry. We're not interested."
She almost sings: "You have to be interested. Why aren't you interested?"
I frown. I show her by looking directly into her eyes with what I think is firmness and state: "Look. I'm very busy and I'm not interested. Please leave."
She yells! "I don't understand why you aren't interested. Blah blah blah...."
"Because I'm not interested.", I say.
"Well, you should be interested." she's still speaking quite loudly and I say:
"Well, I'm not".
"Why are you not interested?" she's still asking when finally.....
"GEt out of my office!!", I roar, and for some Godawful reason I throw in, "And have a nice day!".
She finally picks up her stuff and walks out but does not leave the building. I see her head over to where my husband is busy working on a machine but I can't see her because she steps behind the machine, up close to where he is jammed inside it. He says she said: "I need to speak to the owner and that woman in that office should be fired. Who is she??"
My husband is the owner but he says: "The owner's not here right now" (which is his typical response to any sales person who manages to get past me). Another person, a friend, is also standing beside the machine near my husband, smirking, I'm sure, and he looks at the sales-lady and shrugs. She keeps yapping and then steps outside, meets a customer coming in and says to him: "I need to speak to the owner", and the customer, not understanding the situation says: "OH, he should be right there in that machine".
So she comes back in and starts yapping about the hydro thing and blah blah blah.......
I'm fully focussed on the account I'm working on for quite a few minutes when suddenly, I hear the woman's high pitched voice, still out there, still blabbing......I think to myself: "She interupted me and now she's interupted him long enough!!"...........so...............
I get up. I go out there and I confront her. I say: "I've already told you that we are not interested and I've already asked you to leave. It's time to go. Go away!" in a calm but firm voice. She replies:
"I'll leave when I'm ready!!"
I walk over to the machine where my H is working inside and I say: "What do you think of that?" and he, having not heard what she just said, and looking tired of the whole business says: "I already told her we're not interested".
I look back at her and say: "Go away. Leave. Time to go."
And she says: "You have to be the rudest person I have ever met!"
And I want to spit at her. I want to rip her hair out. I want to crush her ugly fat lips through her stupid fat teeth and I want to punch her so badly, more than I have ever felt toward another human being in my life!! For some ridiculous reason......I feel enraged and want to physically attack this horrible freaking person!! But instead, I say:
"I must be." and I walk back to my office, go inside and close the door.
My husband says he said to her a number of times after that: "It's about time you left" but she just wasn't going until she was ready.
What do ya'll think? I'm going through the stupidest feelings of shame!! How stupid of me! I should have just stayed in my office and kept my mouth shut. I feel like I made a fool of myself infront of the customer and my H's friend by letting this weirdo get my goat! I felt powerless, to boot. These people know that by the time you call the police, they are long gone.
No wonder I bring my big dog with me half the time. I have never had to ask more than once, when my dog is there. I just say: "You have two seconds before I release my dog" and they go!! Ofcourse, that's probably not good behaviour either.
Any why........have I let a pushy, arrogant, ugly sales-woman upset me to the point of feeling so angry? What's with that? I am just getting over the flu, so I tell myself that I'm not my usual self, which I'm not but still. People like her are few and far between, thank God!! Or I might attack somebody!!!
Jeepers. That's not me at all.
Does anyone else have a way of dealing with these types that I could learn from? I dread being there alone, when someone like her shows up. My dog has been the best deterrant so far but honestly.....I think I might have had a time controlling my dog with this one!! She was like a disease!! Like something that gets up your nose and makes you gag! She was just plain aggrivating!!
Or.....I let her be.

Why?
Well thanks for reading. This is silly. With all the much bigger problems in the world (and those of others here) and all the rest of the stuff to worry about.....it's just plain dumb to let such a person pee in my cornflakes, I guess!! At least I didn't give into the temptation to rearrange her face. Boy!! I've never felt like that before!! That worries me too. What's wrong with me, all of a sudden? Why would I even react like that? Where did my brain go? I keep thinking maybe she reminds me of someone from my past but she doesn't. She just reminds me of how lucky I am to not have to deal with people like her too often. But me getting all riled up and ready to spit?? Not good. Not good at all.

I don't like myself right now.
Sela