Dealing with rude people!

[justshattered]

I am lucky in that most of the people I deal with through my line of work are very pleasant. However, occasionally (well, several times a week) I do have to deal with rude clients/potential clients over email and phone.

I'm not very thick-skinned and these encounters really get me down - I often take people's rudeness to heart and will find myself dwelling on what they've said for several days afterwards.

How do you deal with people like this in a professional environment? Do you let it affect you or are you able to brush it off?

I'm the same in my personal life too.

It's never nice when people are rude or horrible. But honestly I do not care what other people's opinions are of me or what they think. When they're rude, they're embarrassing themselves and is a reflection of what type of person they are, not me.

Unfortunately it just takes practice. I'm still not perfect at letting go but you do learn to do that over time. Try not to take it personally.

When they're rude, they're embarrassing themselves and is a reflection of what type of person they are, not me.

That's good advice, thank you!

I, too, take things like that to heart. But I am also rude! I get spam calls all the time and yesterday I amswered one, this insurance call centre had been calling me insessantly. I wasn't very polite to them, although I didn't swear or anything. I have blocked the number, but now I feel guilty as the person on the other end was only doing their job, albeit a very annoying job.
Try not to take it to heart, as I certainly have nothing against the person calling me, specifically.
What exactly is your job and why are you being targeted?