assertiveness

My female owner couldn’t help but be amused by a conversation she had with Mr S yesterday. The context is that last week, he agreed to go uni earlier today (he was already going to donate blood) to help her do up 112 tables for her thesis. He called her yesterday with “a piece of good news, and a piece of bad news”. Long story short, the good news was that he found a part-time job and the bad news was that he is starting today, i.e. he can’t help her. However, he told his boss that he would need a day off because he promised to help a friend. So he wanted to know if Wednesday or Thursday would be ok for her.

Upon hearing that, my female owner told him that it’s ok, she would do the tables herself. That she felt bad for disrupting his schedule and that he had to drive all the way to uni (about 45 mins) just to do something so boring. But he insisted on helping her, saying that he wanted to help out. Trying to be assertive (that’s what he always wanted her to be), she persisted in her stand

“Hey, its ok, I can do the tables myself, really.”
“So wed or thurs better for you?”
“huh? Are you listening to me? I said its ok, I will do it myself”
“So wed or thurs better?” (with slight giggle on his end)

Ah, how to be more assertive than her assertiveness coach? She gave up. After a while, it wasn’t even a conversation. But she was happy that he is man of his word, even though she was really ok if he couldn’t help out.