Reply to Dealing with a difficult person

Forum Index » Family Relationships

Reply to "Dealing with a difficult person"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So, I think the advice is to just be friendly/cordial, but distant. Which sounds right to me. [/quote]

Yep. Also be aware that manipulative people like this tend to have natural instincts for what the security industry calls "social engineering."

Even if you limit information, this kind of person will use the existence of your interaction to imply to others that he/she knows more than he/she actually does as a means of fishing for information from them. Along the lines, of when you send Mean Family Member a deflective email that says something as simple as, "been busy with work," MFM will call another family member and say, "FAMILY MEMBER X, I've been talking with Larla and she told me all about how crazy busy she's been at work, and I'm a little worried about her. Do you think she's overwhelmed? Do you know if she'll be getting any time off or if they can take a vacation any time this summer? What is she doing with Larlito and Larlita to fill the time since she's so busy? Does Larla's husband help out or is he crazy-busy, too? ..."

Or, MFM calls up another FM Y and says, "Have I done something to offend Larla? I got a very terse email from her and she's usually so friendly! Has she seemed withdrawn lately to you? Do you think she's overwhelmed at work? Do the have enough to do during the summer? Do you think she's stressed about something? ..."

Unless your other FMs/mutual friends (if any) know to deflect and defer when dealing with MFM, too, they will take MFM's questions as legitimate concern and promptly tell MFM all of his/her thoughts and about what they know about your plans, what's going on in your life, etc.

[quote=Anonymous]Do you think there is any hope that people like this can change?[/quote]

No.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics