Recently, I have met up with a friend of mine who we have lost touch for a while ago when I was sent overseas. This friend of mine, I shall called him Roy, was passing by Kuala Lumpur for transit to somewhere else with his wife.
Gladly to have put down all my tasks and clear my schedule for a fellow friend that I have not catch up for sometime. This is also the first time I’m meeting his wife. Excited and delighted that they accepted my dinner invitation at one of the more popular local eatery near my place.
But sadly, the meeting left much to be desire. Firstly, the couple was half an hour late which was alright with me, given that they are tourists and may not know the location very well. However, even before Roy properly introduced his wife to me, she remarked that it’s weird that I would choose such an inconvenient location to meet up. I smiled and brushed that remark to the back of my mind and thought nothing of it until the she started to comment about the humid weather, the bad traffic, the shabbiness of their hotel room. On and on came the negative remarks one after another.
Even something as harmless as telling her that I have a website and invited her to take a look when she’s free, she replied with a curt “I’m sure it’s good without looking at it but how you can waste your time to blog, I don’t know. Isn’t blogging a young girl’s hobby? Don’t you have better things to do?” I glared at Roy who just shrugged and stared into space. Guess it’s just me versus the wife then. There and then I told her off, I won’t repeat what I said but I think I was polite but sarcastic at the same time.
I had thought she’ll get it but she didn’t and she went on and on about how she admired that I don’t need to work and how she wished Roy could be more successful and earning much more so she can stay at home as well. There and then, I had enough and I ended what should have been a lovely dinner meeting a new person and catching up with an old friend turned into something so distasteful.
Her negativity just ruin my appetite. However, to my surprise, she is not the only one I have encountered in my life. There are colleagues and clients I have worked before that are so filled with negativity. So much so that it is nearly impossible to rub your positivity vibe on them and instead, allow them to slowly wrapped their poison vines around your neck, squeezing out each drop of sunshine out of you.
Like for Roy and his wife, since it is on a personal encounter, I could easily turned my head and walked away but when it comes to a working environment, it is not that easy to just go away especially if its someone you need to work closely with.
As much as possible, I always try to avoid negative people and hang out with positive ones but during work, you can only make certain choices but not all the time. For such scenarios, I will try not to allow the words of those affect me and just concentrate on getting the work done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sometimes, I do throw back the negative at them by asking them if they could have take charge of the situation at hand, instead of just whining. Sometimes, it works but sadly, most of the times, old habits die hard.
Every now and then, we are entitled to some negativity of our own, some whining at certain times too. But don’t let such destructive behaviour take control of your personality and your life, before you know it, negativity may cost you your friends and the happiness you deserved.
As for Roy and his wife, they went out of Kuala Lumpur the next day, I had an apologetic text from Roy but I feared it is a little too late to salvage my impression of his wife.
Have you encounter anyone like Roy’s wife? How did you handle the situation? Share with me and perhaps I can learn from you!
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