Do you get bothered by some comments your colleagues make?

As a little girl growing up with two elder brothers, teasing was part of my life. They were really good in teasing and I was really good at getting teased. It did get better over years as I learned to be not bothered by it.

There was this one thing they used to say that did bug me a lot. They will tell me that Mahatma Gandhi is a good friend of James Bond. One would ask why will that bother me, here is why. I happen to share my birthday with Gandhi and feel some affinity with the guy. I could never in my dreams have imagined a non-violent person like him to be friends with James Bond.  I was around 5 year old at that time.  As I grew older I did learn; the more I get bothered, the more they will tease.

Years passed by, I was a happy-go-lucky person and did not get bothered about much of what people would say.  That did change when I came to US for my MBA. It was 4^th day of school and we had a group presentation. It went well and I had no doubts in my mind that it will not. However, what ticked me was this one comment from one of my team members. “ You did really good” as if he was expecting me to not do that well.  

We all have been in situations where people will say things that will some how press our wrong buttons. Sometimes we are able to deal with such situations easily and sometimes not. It is really a skill that does not come easily to most of us, but an important one to have in any kind of group environment and especially in a corporate.

In next couple of blogs will share some tricks to not get bothered or may be do get bothered a little but not show it. Trust me it is no fun pressing your buttons once you stop getting bothered.