Has a co-worker ever wanted to fight you?

[Karatedrifter7]

There's two sides to every argument, so I wont say who's right or wrong, its both my fault, and theirs.
But I'll ask? Has anyone ever had someone at work that wanted to physically start a fight with them? What did you do? I'm planning on just staying away. No agreement, with or without a manager has seemed to solve this.

 

[blackxpress]

Sounds like you need a better manager. It happened to me once. The other guy was bigger, stronger and older than me and had promised me that he was going to kick my *** as soon as we were off the clock. I stood up to him and basically said, "See you then." Our plant manager got wind of it and made us get together and apologize to each other, shake hands, promise not to fight, etc. Sounds corny but it actually worked. We both had too much to lose to get fired over it. Funny thing is we wound up being good friends. I think he respected the fact that I didn't cower.

 

[MA-Caver]

Had a guy at a furniture store that I worked at try to start some crap. Mainly because he was bored and looking for fun. Seemed he elected me to be the token whipping boy and started throwing crap in my direction to push whatever buttons I may have had.
I had them... but wanted to keep the job. So basically gave him a firm warning and left it at that and avoided being "alone" and kept in sight of management. He left it be after a bit.

If you really like your job then avoid it like you've been doing (but watch your back none-the-less), if the jerk-off persists then take it to the management and keep going up hill til it's resolved. Let it be known that you wish to keep your job and want no trouble... period! at each level of management you have to go see. Eventually things will cool down enough where you can work in peace again.

 

[jks9199]

Gee...

I've had plenty of people at work try to fight me. In fact, sometimes several times in one day!

OH... Wait, you mean colleagues? In anger? Not in ages. Definitely not since I became a cop. For fun? Well, the chief bought the explanation about big termites breaking the wall... or at least he seemed to!

If you've got a coworker that refuses to behave like an adult, and wants to fight, refer it to a manager. Document it in writing. So that if something happens, the idiot doesn't turn around and claim you were starting trouble.

 

[ejaazi]

One time, me and a supervisor got into it. He wanted to "go outside", but I told him we could go right there. The manager stepped in and that was the end of that. Another time, I lost my temper with a guy who gets on everyone's nerves. I told him I would see him outside, but he didn't show. That was probably for the best. I'm older now, and more aware of the damage I might do and the trouble I could get myself into. So now, I keep out of any conflicts.

 

[Xue Sheng]

There's two sides to every argument, so I wont say who's right or wrong, its both my fault, and theirs.
But I'll ask? Has anyone ever had someone at work that wanted to physically start a fight with them? What did you do? I'm planning on just staying away. No agreement, with or without a manager has seemed to solve this.

Use to happen all the time but then my job was security and the hospital had a mental health and detox unit.

As to a co-worker, nope never had anyone want to fight me

 

[Kacey]

Coworkers? Not seriously.

Middle school students? They think they do - but again, they're not serious - in their case it's posturing.

Parents of middle school students? I can usually tell these coming a mile away, and make to have an administrator - and on a couple of occasions, our school resource officer (a local police officer who is posted to our school when we're in session) present to help avoid problems.

 

[tellner]

Twice.

The first time wasn't serious. It was a kid who had just gotten a growth spurt and a big dose of testosterone. All that was necessary was getting his attention by, hmm, taking the problem at the root - looking him straight in the eye with a warm smile and grabbing the organs that were responsible for the behaviour. No fight. No harm. No problem.

The second time a manager thought it would be fun to sneak up behind me with a club bell during a code review and tried to scare me when I turned back to take questions. It's one of the few times I'm sorry I have a moral compass. I could have shanked the son of a ***** and walked. Instead the "battle computer" said "Not a threat." I don't think he saw the knife. But he didn't like being told "Don't ever pull a stunt like that again. I'm not sure what I'll do to you. But you won't like it."

 

[Doc_Jude]

Only once that I can think of, in the Navy while stationed in Okinawa. One guy just didn't like me, he was a jerk in general, & my boxer friend Terry got him all keyed up playing Don King between us. I told him in front of everyone at Sick Call to show up at the gym at 5pm, I was there any night he cared to show. By the time 5 came along, the gym had over 100 guys, Navy & Marines alike, 4 or 5 camcorders so the guys on duty could watch it later. Even the Colonel poked head in. It didn't last long, I hit him a few times & proposed that we quit before someone got hurt and shook hands. He claimed after that he had just "wanted to spar". Heh. It was so funny, he was such a tough talker, but his hands were shaking so bad he couldn't untie his sweats. One good thing, he was a lot nicer around the office after that.

 

[Karatedrifter7]

Actually that sounded pretty cool, get it over with in the open like that. It creates hard feelings the other way.

 

[Touch Of Death]

There's two sides to every argument, so I wont say who's right or wrong, its both my fault, and theirs.
But I'll ask? Has anyone ever had someone at work that wanted to physically start a fight with them? What did you do? I'm planning on just staying away. No agreement, with or without a manager has seemed to solve this.

I end up fighting all the time at my job. It usually ends pretty quickly, but the new guys always want to test me. I have been carefull not to hurt anyone though. Believe it or not, it brings us closer just about every time.
Sean

 

[morph4me]

I had a guy who wanted to me to drive off the property annd fight so we wouldn't get fired for fighting on the job. When I told him that he shouldn't drive because win or lose he would be in no condition to drive back, he changed his mind and nothing ever came of it.