Fight Baiting, How Do You Handle?

If the person is having bad day, I leave them alone. Just like I want people to leav eem alone if I am having a bad day.

I must live in la-la-land. No coworker has ever picked a fight with me, and I've been working in one form or another since 1977! If I were in this situation, I think I'd just excuse myself and get the heck out of there.

I have a supervisor who does this constantly. I just steer clear and only talk to her if it is about work and if I have to right then. I try not to let myself rise to her bait and if I am just polite and let her get over her mood, she usually does

Thanks for your input. I agree that letting the person ""get over it"" is best. I am still not working at not taking it personal but that is improving.

An old southern saying: "don't bite the bait." I try to add distance or just not answer, if possible. Time and space seem to help.

On 4/8/2014 Peaches McPhee said:

I must live in la-la-land. No coworker has ever picked a fight with me, and I've been working in one form or another since 1977! If I were in this situation, I think I'd just excuse myself and get the heck out of there.

I think I live in your la-la-land too. I started working in 1968 and no one ever picked a fight with me or any of my friends. I did see two surgeons get into a fight once but that is a whole different situation.

I read the title and thought it must be about dog fighting and M. Vick or something like that. I have never heard these terms used with people in a working environment.

Maybe it has to do with the job and the education. I can't imagine this behavior; I'm glad I haven't witnessed it with adults. Now, I taught school for 45 years and saw it with jr. high and high school kids who were immature or of different economic groups. That's part of the learning process for kids.

I am happy to say that I never saw fellow professional teachers "bait" another teacher for a fight! What a bad situation. I taught in several schools in several states and teachers were always professional and worked together to educate the students.

If I worked in a place that practiced this behavior, I'd have to find another job. I loved teaching and wish I could teach 45 more years!

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I never experienced this at work, but members of my family do it all the time. With family its kind of a no win situation. If you ignore them or try to avoid them they get angry. It's still a work in progress for me to find a way around it.

leaving alone is good idea for bad day ..