Dealing with Trash-talkers: How to deal with people talking trash behind your back?

Oh hello, dear reader, what may you be here for? Huh? You heard I was talking trash about you? Well, you heard right. I did go behind your back. Now I'm sure you'll need ways to either get back at me or deal with this situation you find yourself in. Mind if I lead the way by setting some context?

As situations in human life are mostly social in nature, we're bound to find ourselves in communicative circumstances. As such, it is natural to expect that different people will have different evaluations of you, whatever they may be based on. It's also a fair assumption to make that in any given social setting with a truly random sample size, there will be at least one person who will dislike you.

Write a Passive-Aggressive Blog:

This blog didn't just pop out of nowhere now, did it? Somebody spoke about me behind my back and I got an idea that I must execute. This option is ideal, primarily because there are literally millions of blogs out there and the chance of the person reading this is nigh impossible. My frustration gets released creatively, the person doesn't get to know that I know what they said and most importantly, I get to show off the moral high ground that I've taken up. For me, it's a win-win even if they do come across this.

An alternative, if you're not the writer kind: Let social media do your bidding

Make a passive-aggressive post about them. Put the caption "you know who you are" and put the same on your story

Talk Things out:

Just because some options are obvious, they cannot be skipped. This is just as it sounds, have a sort of sit down and get the feel of both parties out on the table. There are pros and cons to this one. A conversation will have to be had. Maybe they won't be willing to have the discussion. If they are, then a likely question you can expect is "who told you?". You could get away with something vague if you don't name the source or if this isn't an obvious answer. Even in that case, you both will have to meet somewhere in the middle regarding what was spoken. The only way this can work out well is if the other person wants for it to work out, otherwise, they'll just have more content to trash talk about you behind your back.

Float a Survey promising anonymity:

If you believe that you're part of the reason why someone has a bad option for you, a fair route to take up is availing the opportunity to grow. You could float out a Google form to people asking them for feedback about yourself and areas where you can improve. The key here is to drop in the form where it is easy to access for the one who spoke about you. Honestly, this will most probably not work out but hey, at least you'll get a few things you may want to start working on.

Change Their Opinion of you:

This is by far the toughest option on the list. The number of variables involved in the liking or disliking of an individual is practically infinite. Unlike talking things out, this is a far more indirect approach. In case the wording about you has been negative and you do happen to care about your image in front of people but are non-confrontational, this is your best bet. By using your presence in front of them to perform in a more empathetic and

Block them out:

Not everyone's opinion of you will matter to you and if it does, you need to reassess your priorities. It's impossible to please everyone and the sooner you learn this, the better it is. If you deem this person's opinion about you to be irrelevant, treat it as such. Block out their opinions, but if you believe their concerns are still valid, be my guest and work on them.

Remember that most people's opinions of you won't necessarily be backed by an objective foundation. The situations and "tips" are only a few ways that you could deal with some comments made about you by someone. There's probably another million that I don't know about. Don't use these as an exhaustive list but as a source for inspiration to deal with such situations. Thank you for tuning into Alliteration Articulation, here's to hoping I drop something worth reading for you soon enough!