Re:My Story as a Homeless Developer
by DoreenMichele on Friday September 07, 2018 @06:08PM
(#17938022)
Push back doesn't have to be ugly or escalating. It can be subtler and de-escalating. The entire point should be to de-escalate.
It's something I do a lot of. What you want is to avoid standing idly by while people slippery slope you into something super bad.
There was an incident at a library in Fresno where someone working for services sent their people to come "help" us and they were horribly disrespectful and I refused to answer their questions and called them on their rudeness. They went and complained to the librarians who basically sent them away.
After that, all library staff were vastly nicer to us.
Push back doesn't mean calling them names. It means calling out their socially unacceptable behavior.
I also sometimes refused to give my name to strangers who wanted to help and were inappropriately grilling me for information. I would point out that if I weren't homeless, they would never in a million years think it was okay to walk up to me and start peppering me with invasive questions.
It's something I do a lot of. What you want is to avoid standing idly by while people slippery slope you into something super bad.
There was an incident at a library in Fresno where someone working for services sent their people to come "help" us and they were horribly disrespectful and I refused to answer their questions and called them on their rudeness. They went and complained to the librarians who basically sent them away.
After that, all library staff were vastly nicer to us.
Push back doesn't mean calling them names. It means calling out their socially unacceptable behavior.
I also sometimes refused to give my name to strangers who wanted to help and were inappropriately grilling me for information. I would point out that if I weren't homeless, they would never in a million years think it was okay to walk up to me and start peppering me with invasive questions.