how should I react to sarcastic and insulting remarks of others?

Question

i work in a newspaper, which due to the shortage of space is sharring a hall with another newspaper's staff. meanwhile, the other paper's staff are not in good terms with me and i can constanlty hear their sarcasitc remarks across the hall about me. Unfortunately because they don't make their sarcastic remarks straight to my face i am baffled about how to react to them because such remarks unfortunately get to my nerves.

Answer 1

If you aren't going to confront anyone directly, I suppose it might be worth examining your performance at work. Do you do anything or say anything that might incite snide remarks? If not, try to think about what these people are responding to. Are they jealous of your success? Do they think you do not deserve whatever position you currently occupy? Consider them, and then make a decision. If you are innocent of any insult, and you feel that you cannot confront them directly, then you might want to discuss your problems with a supervisor or human resources personnel.

You should never feel bullied out of a job. If you do the work outlined in your position description, your employer should provide an environment wherein you can excel.

Answer 2

Pal, cut out a hand with four fingers and a thumb bend three fingers and the thumb down with a stapler but leave the middle finger sticking straight up! Put it on a stick and jamb the stick somewhere on your desktop up high! That should shut them up! Have a good day!

Answer 3

Ignore them. Their comments only aim to hurt and anger you. If you show no emotion to their words, then it becomes pointless for them to continue their insults. It would hurt only if you notice and care, right? So don't. It will eventually die out. Better not confront them or retaliate in any other furious way because it might put you in a jeopardy with your boss and their boss, because, as you say, they aren't insulting you to your face, right? So you wouldn't have any evidence for their misbehaviour.

Answer 4

I usually go for the direct approach myself. When someone tries to make a "funny" at my expense, they've made themselves fair game. I realize that the mature thing to do is simply ignore them, but being human your patience can be stretched only so far. For example, I worked at a large printing company in the bindery department, and parking was a real mess. There was a guy who worked right across from me in the press department who thought that he had an assigned parking space. One night when I came in, the only parking space was the one this other guy traditionally used, but I was running late, so I took it. Besides, it was first come first park. Around three in the morning I was standing on the dock shrink-wrapping a skid for shipping, and I happened to look out in the well lit parking lot just in time to see this fool putting something on my windshield under the wiper blade. I waited until he went back in the building before I went out to see what it was. The idiot wrote on a blank sheet of paper two words- A-H. I took it off my windshield and went back in the building up to the press department and walked in. There he was with about eight of his buddies laughing and telling them what he did. He looked over and saw me standing there with a grin on my face, holding the piece of paper he put on my windshield. I walked over to him, in front of his buddies, and said,"You know, it's been the case over the years that someone wrote me a note and forgot to put their name on it; this is the first time someone put their name on it and forgot to leave a note.", at which time I held it up for all his buddies to see what he wrote. They were rolling and laughing at him to the point he got so pissed off that he clocked out and went home. From then on he never spoke to me or made a fuss about me taking "his" parking spot. To the dorks who are hassling you,- find their weakspot and exploit it. Even if it means one of them quitting from embarrassment. Another guy I hated always wore a shirt on Monday that said,'Monday sucks", so I started calling him Monday. He soon transferred to another department because everyone started calling him Monday and he hated it. Exploit something about them to your advantage and spread it around. See what happens.

Answer 5

Always a tough one for those who don't like confrontation very much. I worked in an office at one point having moved up from another position were the staff had been like family...into an office that was akin to a shark infested tank and because I'd been promoted to the position that they thought someone else in the office should have gotten, I was treated quite ignorantly by most of the women who were the favored incumbents friends. I'm still mentally kicking myself for not having heeded the advise of the head supervisor in that office that I would not enjoy my position, I should not accept the promotion because I would not be happy with my decision. I simply thought he just didn't want me in his office...but I ran into him when he retired a few years later. He had been trying to warn me that this office was a group of immature, ignorant and lazy (his words) cackling hens. How I wish I'd read between the lines on that one.

The first few months I was my normal friendly self, truly expecting that this office would transform into the kind of office I'd just left and was wishing I hadn't. The attempts to engage in civil conversation with these people died fairly quickly as they began choosing to spread pretty pathetic attempts at gossip to discredit my skills, efficiency and work ethics. My desk began to pile up with more and more work as the work was taken from other co workers and assigned to me. It got to the point where I was working through lunch, breaks, staying late and coming in early to attempt to keep ahead of it all. I have always prided myself on efficiency, promptness and accuracy and these were the areas they were attacking, as the one woman knew my work ethics because she'd dealt directly with me when I was in the other position and she knew what I expected of myself. While in the other position I'd gotten along very well with all of these people, as a co-worker who was put into a position someone else wanted I was now an enemy.

I ended up with stomach ulcers, carpel tunnel (I worked the large majority of time with computers and fine motor skills), migraines and ultimately after a car accident, Fibromyalgia which left me pretty well paralyzed on my left side for several months. The stress of trying to get along with these people after 5 years of trying to simply do the job I was paid very good money to do, assisted my body in retaliating. Today, 14 years later, I still live with pain 24/7 and at the first hint of a stressful situation my entire system goes haywire and it takes me a week or more after the stress to recuperate.

Moral of this chatty story? If their gossip and ridicule of you is totally unfounded or is based on the fact that you happen to be in a position that they feel someone else should be in...or they are ridiculing your work ethics, habits etc. Take it up with a supervisor. If you get no action in solving this, take it up with the supervisor's supervisor...always come across as a concerned employee tho, never attack the individuals, rather come across as wanting to understand the problem you are presenting to them that seems to be causing some sort of misunderstanding between you and them and that you would really like to learn what the problem is so you can try to rectify it ;)

9 out of 10 times, unless you have the misfortune to have a supervisor who is in on this because of what s/he may be hearing and believing rather than confirming it first, coming across as an employee who simply wants to do their job and get along with the co-workers...should have them wanting to assist you without question. This method also ensures that the co-workers don't become suspect that they are being attacked. Misunderstandings sometimes happen simply because of the way people perceive you...perhaps they see you as stand offish, appearing as tho you believe you are better than them etc. it could be anything...work around it in a 'honey is better than vinegar' approach and it will at least show that you are simply trying to do the best job you can all around. Show that you possess the maturity that these people lack and you should at some point obtain some level of success (I like to call it 'sweet revenge' when it turns out my way ;O )

If you try your level best and this still isn't working out...perhaps trying for another position within the company if available will get you into a different and more pleasant office, otherwise scope out a new job because the stress that this type of situation can eventually cause, especially if their attitudes are totally unfounded or based on jealousy, is absolutely not worth it.

Good luck (sorry about the length)

Answer 6

Let them talk....they're only showing their own ignorance. That's laughable.
If they talk about your mother...then kick their axx.