You’re pissing me off with your fucking vacation, stop telling me about it! That’s exactly the kind of thing you shouldn’t say at work.
If you want to be able to express your feelings and be heard, try leaning toward nonviolent communication instead.
NVC, or nonviolent communication, is a method that lets you express what you feel, your emotions, without judging or attacking the other person, simply through facts.
To avoid the sentence from the beginning, you could say: “I understand you’re excited about your vacation, but right now I need to focus on my work. Could we talk about it later, please?”
The message stays the same, “I don’t want to listen to you right now,” but it’s much softer, and the person can understand your situation and give you the space you need to work.
In short, nonviolent communication isn’t there to prevent dialogue, but to bring dialogue in a different way to avoid conflicts and encourage discussion.
And what about you, how could you use nonviolent communication this week at work or in your personal life?