Welcome to my crazy office podcast with the
authors of working with you is killing me,
working for you isn't working for me and
mean girls at.
Cassie El and Catherine Crowley. They are committed
to creating world peace, 1 crazy office.
And now, here are Cassie and Cassie.
Hey, everyone. I'm Cathy El,
and I'm Catherine Crowley and welcome to my
crazy office.
Today, we're going to address a challenging
situation.
What do you do if you are attack
by a toxic client. Mh. We'll start with
a question from someone who has experienced
just that, being attacked by a client during
a meeting.
We'll talk about how to recover from these
kinds of situations and how to manage the
client going forward.
Oh, 0, boy,
you know, it can be so unnerving when
a client suddenly goes on the attack.
I hope more people will send questions like
this to info my crazy office dot c.
Alright. So here's a question we're answering today.
I recently had a very disturbing encounter with
a client that I had been working with
for 6 months.
We were meeting to discuss the status of
a major project
and I had given the client a number
of tasks
to complete for the meeting.
From the beginning of the meeting, the client
aggressively
attacked me.
The work we've been doing and my company.
I hadn't done anything wrong. The client was
at fault but they made it sound as
if I was totally incompetent.
Mh. I got off the call shaking.
Now I need to go to my boss
and explain what happened. What do I do?
I mean, it happens.
Yeah.
And
obviously, I would go to the boss with
documentation
showing
what in fact you had done.
And
so that the... And explaining that the attack
was not
your fault that this client just decided to
attack you. But make sure that you get
a good night's sleep and that you really
think about what you might have done wrong
just so that you can say everything to
your boss.
Yeah. Lee. When this kind of stuff happens
in a company, usually, they'll they'll say, okay.
We're gonna get somebody I'll call the client
or we'll get somebody else on it.
Because, you know, what happens, clients can be
very, very difficult,
and you... They just can't leave you stranded.
You know to take care of the person
when they're so abusive.
So that's that's my suggestion. As you get
all your ducks in a row, go to
your manager,
and show that this client was being unreasonable
and see if he'll...
If he got somebody else to take the
client on.
Right. And my
my suggestion would be first to detox.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Because when you take in that kind of
anger and that end of,
aggression,
it's going to leave its mark.
Yeah. What happens
often in ironic that very often, it's the
most responsible
employees, the most,
careful
professionals who can be attacked like this. And
then
feel as if somehow they must have done
something wrong. Yeah. So I think the first
thing is it's funny I was thinking back
to our unhook technique from working with you
is killing me. I think the first thing
is you have... You literally wanna purge
that negative
energy from your body
Yeah. Figured working out or kicking a shower
or,
I don't know, swinging a tennis racket on
the bed and getting it off of you.
Out of you,
because you've take... You've ingested something that's not
healthy.
Yeah.
I think you're right. That's the first thing
you really have to do. And it could
take a couple of days. It could. Exactly.
And in the meantime, maybe before you go
to your boss,
do some, you know, write an inventory what
happened? Like, describe for yourself,
what really went down here? How did the
meeting start what did they say to me?
How did I respond?
What really was going on here? Because it...
You say in this
description that, in fact, the client was supposed
complete a number of tasks,
and they didn't.
And very often, I think with a particular
kind of client, the best
defense is a good offense. So they make
you wrong
so that you don't have to hold them
c for not doing their part of the
project.
Yeah.
And, you know,
he can't really sit around and imagine that
this client is gonna come to senses, and
our his, and then apologize. It's probably not
gonna happen.
Right.
I mean, think it's reasonable if you work
for somebody that has somebody that can take
this client on to say I'm I refuse
to work with this person again. There... You
know, they handed me irr irresponsible. It was
unprofessional, and I will not work with this
person again unless they're willing to apologize. But
even then, how do you move forward with
somebody,
who does that.
You know, when it's your own business, I
think... It's different. You probably
have to figure out how you're gonna either
fire the client or
you know, hopefully, they will apologize, and you
can move on. But I think when you
work in a company, I know that in
most of the companies I worked in, there's
always,
you know, whether it's a customer service or
sales,
you know, there's always somebody... Like... Not everybody's
gonna get along with every client. It just
does work that way or you can get
along for a while and then try
So they usually will shift clients. You know,
Right. So they not... You don't have to
deal with a wrath.
Right. It's just not fair to to have
to deal with that. So make sure that
you know, your company will be behind you
here.
So I like this Cathy. I like this
idea of going to your boss or whomever,
if there's a lead on your team.
And I think you
you always have a great way of phrasing
things, but saying something to the effect of.
I'm not the best person to work with
this person or you know,
you may... It may be better to give
this account to someone else because I don't
know that I can work well with this
client.
Is that would you say something like that?
I think you have to say, you know,
it I I believe it was the client's
fault. I had sent the work to...
Which is
we do in our company, we send them
to fill certain things out, and it wasn't
done, and she took it out on me
in a very vile vile way, and I
don't think I can come back from that.
Yeah. I don't know how to trust this
person in another meaning, and they're unreasonable.
Yeah. Their emotions are out of control. So
I would put someone maybe stronger than me,
someone who can actually go at her or
him and say,
look, you, you know, this is what happened
here. We need you to participate more.
But I think the tides have turned between
She and I. I mean, that's
Unless you feel you can go back in
that line stand again. Right. Or maybe you
have a meeting with your boss and the
client.
And work it out. So Maybe bring some
protection next time where your boss will take
your side. That's another way of handling it.
Yeah.
But I think it's important to recognize that
you do have options here. That the first
thing is taking care of yourself
and appreciating that this is
you know, to be attacked
is not a good thing, and you do
need to recover from it. It's not acceptable
just to let someone do that per s.
And on the other hand, you really need
to... It's funny. We always talking about this
document
exactly what happened, what are the facts in
the situation
and report those to someone who's in a
place where they can do something about it.
Yeah.
I think that's really all you can do.
So...
And I think... And hopefully, your boss will
understand and take action. I've seen this happen
a lot.
U. Where usually they'll send in someone else
in a higher position to take take control.
Have you ever had the experience where the
client having been aggressive and harsh and mean
or whatever you wanna say,
then apologize and treats
you know, an employee
Not typically.
Excuse me. I think many clients believe that
they are allowed to be this way. Yeah.
Especially if they're paying for a service, they
want it to include their mental breakdowns. Yes.
I think that that can be... And now
what's going on in the world, I think
people are very volatile. So I can see
where, you know, maybe you she'll come to
our senses or he will come to their
senses, and they will apologize and say I
might have been a little rough last time.
I have apologize for that. Yeah.
But I I don't know that you have
to go back in there.
Yes.
I think it would send a
better message
by
the saying this person.
You know, it's not gonna be working with
you anymore.
We're we're we're gonna have you work with
someone else. Unless they, you know, really said,
well, let me talk to them and Will
apologize. You know, unless they wanna make it
right. But
I just... I think
I would go into this situation saying, I
think there may be somebody who would be
better trained than me or somebody who
you know, you you you hit a certain
roadblock with certain clients. And and it happens
to the best.
Oh, yeah. Well, you just have to know
and and say, I don't think it's smart
that I go back in. This client felt
she is client felt if they could be
abusive to me. And that it would be
perfectly okay. And I don't think that that's
the right message. And I'm not sure why
they felt that way. Right.
I'm not going to be put in that
situation again. Yeah. It's interesting. I just recently
was listening to a podcast about what they
call emotionally immature individuals.
And how 1 of the tactics for emotionally
in immature individuals is when they're caught
making a mistake. They go on the attack.
Mh. And that they...
And what they'll do is they will say
so many things
you know, emotionally base things that aren't... That
don't have fact behind them, but they'll say
them in such a way that it's almost
a battery of
accusations. And no
no real, you know, fighting back. And when
someone's in an emotional state, they're not receptive
to feedback anyway. So I do think that
that this is part of... And as you
say now, and the particular environment we're in
that more of that behavior unfortunately is
available than it has been in the past,
and then it really is important to find
ways to take care of yourself in those
situations, and don't assume that it's something you
just have to put up with
for your job. Right. That's right.
So that's it for this podcast. If you
have any further comments or thoughts on this
topic,
just check us out on Instagram at my
crazy office and comment, please.
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