Will’s Slap: How To Handle Aggression At Work
Parent Post
On Monday, actor Will
On Monday, actor Will Smith issued an apology to comedian Chris Rock for his unpleasant behaviour at the Oscars.
Smith slapped Rock after the comic cracked a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, which didn’t go down well with the actor, provoking the violent reaction.
By his apology, Smith realised that no kind of violence can be justified and is unacceptable.
What to do if
What to do if you are assaulted/abused/bullied at work?
The first act should be to introspect — reflect on your own actions/behaviour.
Consciously or otherwise, have I transgressed some boundaries?
If the answer is even a partial yes, an apology is something that will help you for long and leave the other person solely bearing the responsibility for her/his actions.
In case you do
In case you do feel it was unsolicited, unprovoked — it’s time to avoid the traps of an amygdala hijack or ‘what will the world think of me if I do not retaliate?’ ego.
It’s time to collect yourself, leave the scene, gather yourself and then evaluate whether you can and want to charter an independent conversation with the other individual or would you need support from other stakeholders.
How to handle aggression
How to handle aggression at work
The first task is to draw a line between professional and personal interactions at work.
Every single individual around you is playing a role and you need to consciously make an effort to remind yourself that in a given capacity, some other role is passing a message to the role you are playing.
You need to be courageous to listen to it as a professional and not personalise it. So you are applying the mantra to yourself and the other person at the same time.
In personal interactions at
In personal interactions at work – be sensitive, be authentic, keep your conversations respectable and transparent, respect confidentiality, be willing to listen, willing to forgive, be accountable and if required willing to apologise.
The more we practise this regularly, the lesser the probability of finding ourselves in an emotionally charged situation, at work.