How to deal with passive aggressive people at work?

[howilovebrightlights]

I work as a buyer and I’m dealing with a supplier on behalf of a department who wants to use them for training.

The passive aggressiveness in his emails is atrocious. First he ignored my initial email but responded to one I was cc’d sent two days after, then when I followed up he was trying to be clever about why I asked him to sign an NDA and then responded with “well if I have to sign it I will”

Demanding to have everything done (I’ve signed everything so what exactly are we still waiting for?!) and today he’s given me an “as per my email dated” - for an email he never sent.

He’s a small company, I work for a large global company. So his demands and attitude are badly misplaced (same as when I’m dealing with a company bigger than the one I work for). I really have no idea how to deal with this kind of person.

Talk to the department you are buying for. Suggest they go elsewhere and give the good reasons why. From what you describe I would be prepared to delay the training unless it was essential such as retaining safety licences.

I too would discuss all of this with the manager of that department.

He's going to be a nightmare. If they still want to use him at least they won't be able to say they were not warned.

This communication is part of your due diligence. If he's this difficult when you are offering him the opportunity to gain business how difficult will he be once the contract is signed and he's won the business?

Unless he's offering a one of a kind service I'd look for alternatives. If the department are adamant they want to give him another chance then I would be very transparent with him and say something like 'I require a response to my email dated xx providing the requested information. Due to the delays and difficulty in relieving this information from you, I have started approaching other organisations offering a similar service and am now actively seeking an alternative supplier. If I have not heard from you by xx then your company will be removed from our list of prospective suppliers.'

Someone at work is giving me the Silent Treatment.

What have I done? Nothing

I hate her now and the sight of her makes me sick

We got along ok then out of the blue it happened.

Luckily we are different shifts😃

This is good reply