As I was growing up, I've witnessed a number of interpersonal conflicts within my circle of friends and when this topic came up, I recalled an incident that happened during my secondary school days. My friends 'A' and 'B' were taking some worksheets from our class monitor one day and 'B' was tapping 'A' constantly to ask 'A' to get a set for him. 'A' felt irritated and shoved his hand away and said 'Go away!' in a very irritated tone. A few other classmates, including me also jeered 'B' as he always makes us do things for him.
               
Things escalated quickly and 'A' and 'B' argued very loudly after that and hence 'B' started pushed tables and chairs down to vent his anger. 'B' was pretty big in size so he was pretty scary. But, some of the classmates, including me tried to stop 'B' by telling him to stop acting like a kid and throw things around because we have seen a few incidents where 'B' lost his temper. He felt even more angry that we were all against him and started shouting to me about not being a true friend. I calmly said, ' It's because I treat you as a friend that was why I want you to stop acting like that now. Whats the point in throwing all the chairs and table like this? He already apologized to you already. Just let it go.' He stormed off after that but strangely he came back and helped to put back all the chairs and tables with us. He also said sorry to everyone else for shouting like that.

I felt that I handled this situation quite well, even though I felt that if we did not stereotyped him as a bully all the time, this misunderstanding and conflict would not be present in the first place.However, I feel that it is situations like this that help me handle workplace conflicts as this is something that is bound to happen in some point of my career. I feel that if we did not stereotyped him as a bully all the time, this misunderstanding and conflict would not be present in the first place.