Have you experienced:
- The person at home or at work that makes you feel like you are riding an emotional roller coaster. You know the one, he is friendly one day, but sulks and withdraws the next (and you, being the conscientious person you are, are wondering what you may have done to cause such behavior).
- Someone who might appear to agree―with enthusiasm―to your request. Rather than completing the task, however, he or she might express anger or resentment by missing deadlines, showing up late to meetings, making excuses, or even interfering with the task.
- Someone who pays you a “comp-insult” (a compliment and an insult in the same sentence). Something like, “Darling, you look fabulous in spite of your new hairstyle.”
- The ex-spouse who, knowing his ex-wife is allergic to cats, buys one for their child.
- The co-worker who engages in the crime of omission by choosing not to share a piece of key information that could or would have prevented a problem. For example, the jealous co-worker who fails to alert his colleague about a mandatory meeting and excuses it by saying something like, “I thought you knew.”
- The individual who have caused you to be so frustrated that after your interaction you scratch your head and ask, “Am I crazy?”
If you answered yes to experiencing any of the above scenarios, you may be interacting with a person engaging in passive aggressive behavior. If you see yourself as the purveyor of this type of chaos, you may be the one engaging in it.
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