Etiquette expert shares three-word response to use when someone is being rude to you
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Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@sarajaneho
We've all been in a situation where someone is just not being their best selves and for whatever reason you're taking the brunt of it.
Maybe they're having a bad day and nobody else is around, or perhaps for whatever reason they've taken against you and have forgotten to mind their manners.
Whatever the reason behind it, knowing how to deal with a person who's being rude to you without being rude back is a vital skill which many people could do with learning.
Fortunately, etiquette expert Sara Jane Ho is on hand to offer some sage advice on how to deal with this sort of thing, and what three word phrase should help you out most of all.
See, the important thing is to let the other person know they're being rude without causing some sort of conflict as lots of people who are being rude might not fully realise it in the moment.
Rudeness can even just be a friend unknowingly straying over a line in a conversation, leaving you with the responsibility of emphasising that boundary without upsetting anyone.
If you say nothing, then whomever is being rude likely won't realise they've done anything wrong or if they're doing it maliciously will think there's going to be no pushback.
If you go in too hard on them then it could end up causing resentment and unpleasantness, or make you look like the d**k when it was the someone else being rude to you in the first place who is at fault.
The etiquette expert suggested that if you wanted to ride that line between assertive and tactful when someone was being rude, then the three words you needed to say to them were: "Are you okay?"
Ho told CNBC that you should say it in a friendly tone, not a short or sharp one, which might make it seem like an underhanded dig.
"I’m not being offensive back, I’m coming from a place of care and that is usually to put the other person in check," she explained, noting that this approach tended to work best on friends.
It's a good sign to the other person that you didn't appreciate what they said and are concerned about where they're at, which is also a good way to let them know where they're at isn't a good place to be.
However, she did say that if you were dealing with a total stranger then silence could be a valid option.
At times when you need to be a bit more formal, Ho suggested letting the rude person 'wallow in their misbehaviour' in front of everyone, allowing their rudeness to suffer silent judgement as though they'd just let out the loudest, smelliest fart in the world.
