Communictaing with difficult people

Hmmm -interesting. The main problem I have is with rude people. They like to make excuses for themselves by saying they are honest and blunt, and call "a spade a spade", but most of the time they are just damned rude and unpleasant!! I try to avoid such people as much as possible, but if I ever have to deal with them in a work environment for example, I tend to put on my best, stiff-upper-lip British cool, and be overly polite and formal with them. It invariably throws them off guard, because they don't know if you are being facetious and taking the *** out of them, or not! The more they get rude and loud, the more polite, and quiet I get!!!

In my workplace, I can't really avoid customers who are so difficult to deal with. All I do is smile and hold my temper because I can't put the company in jeopardy. They say that customers are always right but I don't agree with this statement because they are not always right. If the customers are kinda hard to understand, I let them speak first and I wait until they are done and that's the time I tell them what I feel. Oftentimes, they listen but still there are a few who can't really understand and they get whatt they want. But at least, I avoided confrantations & conflict.;)