I know where you're coming from, Daisy. I worked in customer service for a few years. I have dealt with angry, frustrated people. Those who swear. Most of them were easy in the end, and I enjoyed it a lot of the time, but two really stand out in my memory.

One called when systems were down, and her response was: "No! They can't be down! I want to shout at somebody!"

The other... I asked how she was, and she said: "Not very good." I paused, as usual, to allow her to get over that before I began calming her down, and in the space she said: "Ha! You weren't expecting that, were you?"

Now, I have a good sense for when someone is genuinely angry or just being plain nasty, and she was definitely the latter, so I put my schoolteacher hat on, because being soft with her would only make her worse. I said: "That's all right. I just won't ask you again."

She proved herself by spending the next few months of her personal time trying to get me sacked (it didn't work). Looking back, I'm glad I dealt with her the way I did. She was mean, uncivil and vicious, and really didn't deserve anyone to be nice to her.

Never let anyone trample on your self-respect.