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Some background:
A friend of mine had made a mistake at the place where we both worked. I'll spare the details because they're not relevant, but suffice to say an honest mistake had occurred, and based upon the magnitude of the mistake, he had a (correct) suspicion that his employment there would soon be at an end. Unfortunate, but it meant he was not in much of a mood to deal with SCs, and that, in turn, led to this absolute gem of an interaction.
The SC was being a typical SC, being very short with him, asking him questions and then immediately making some snide comment in response to the answer, huffing and puffing and eyerolling all the way, nothing to egregious but being generally unpleasant.
After a few minutes of that, my friend had enough, and stopped and turned to her.
Friend: Ma'am, can you do me a favor?
SC stares at him, confused and off guard.
Friend: Can you put your hands like this? (My friend raises his hands up to eye level and close to his body, with his thumbs underneath his 4 fingers, which are pointing forward.)
SC: What?
Friend: Just go like this (he continues to hold that pose)
SC: o...k...? (she does)
Friend: Now go ahead and do this (he opens and closes his hands like pincers while shuffling to the side in an imitation of a crab walk) because you're being a little crabby.
The SC laughed and said "yeah, you're right", and the whole interaction turned right around. It could easily have gone a very different direction, but hey, when you have nothing to lose, it doesn't hurt to go all in.
A friend of mine had made a mistake at the place where we both worked. I'll spare the details because they're not relevant, but suffice to say an honest mistake had occurred, and based upon the magnitude of the mistake, he had a (correct) suspicion that his employment there would soon be at an end. Unfortunate, but it meant he was not in much of a mood to deal with SCs, and that, in turn, led to this absolute gem of an interaction.
The SC was being a typical SC, being very short with him, asking him questions and then immediately making some snide comment in response to the answer, huffing and puffing and eyerolling all the way, nothing to egregious but being generally unpleasant.
After a few minutes of that, my friend had enough, and stopped and turned to her.
Friend: Ma'am, can you do me a favor?
SC stares at him, confused and off guard.
Friend: Can you put your hands like this? (My friend raises his hands up to eye level and close to his body, with his thumbs underneath his 4 fingers, which are pointing forward.)
SC: What?
Friend: Just go like this (he continues to hold that pose)
SC: o...k...? (she does)
Friend: Now go ahead and do this (he opens and closes his hands like pincers while shuffling to the side in an imitation of a crab walk) because you're being a little crabby.
The SC laughed and said "yeah, you're right", and the whole interaction turned right around. It could easily have gone a very different direction, but hey, when you have nothing to lose, it doesn't hurt to go all in.
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