Different approach

Dealing with people is never a simple job, and that holds even true when managing difficult people. In my work, it is required to handle problematic "children", though there are also better ones around.

2 incidents which made me wonder what could have been done to better manage the situation if these happened to me.

Incident 1:
One fine afternoon, the "bell" rang which indicates that "recess" is over and time for the "children" to return to their "classrooms". However, one "kid" refused to move and continued to talked to his friend. When my colleague saw that, he went to the kid and reminded him "recess" is over and he should be returning to his "classroom". This "kid", instead of complying, he retorted by telling my colleague to leave him alone. I don't know what happened next, but I believe my colleague must have been angered and the matter was brought to the "principal's" attention.

Incident 2:
When the "children" greeted another colleague of mine, one particular "kid" refused to greet him. When questioned as to why he wasn't greeting, this kid waved his hand in a gesture telling my colleague to go away.

My respond:
So, I have been thinking, how should I respond if these 2 incidents happened to me. For incident 1, I would too approach the "kid" (note: approach, and not confront. They are different), and instead of chasing him away, I would tap lightly on his shoulder and remind him that the bell has gone off, hence wrap up their conversation quickly and return to the "classroom".

My feel is that, if I were to confront him, he would feel that if he comply immediately, that would be succumbing to me, which he would not look good in the presence of other "children" for a person who has an ego as big as the 3 tunnel's tyre. Thus, a soft approach might work better in such situation, whereby I manage to sound my reminder and not humiliating him. Alternatively, instead of talking to this kid, I could just ask the other "kid" he was talking to to quit the conversation. Well, I think either one would have worked.

Incident 2 is an interesting one. Actually that happened to me before, but for my case, the "kid" didn't do it intentionally. He was just day dreaming and forgot that he needs to greet. So, what I did was, after acknowledging the rest of the "children", I looked at the "kid's" direction and I greeted him with a smile, and before he woke up from his dream and greeted me, I pulled a joke saying: "Wow, time has changed. Now "teachers" must greet "children" first." Everyone laughed, and no "kid" was brought to the "principal's" office.