Unprofessional? No, just rude.

It is not that I have never received critique before. When I say critique, I mean negative feedback. But to be honest, it does not happen very often, and I am always willing to listen to what people have to say. There is always something to be learned.

The other day, it happened.

I was at a local business, utilizing their services, when the owner of the establishment showed interest in buying a copy of my book. The person was looking forward to reading it. I was happy to share, so I went to the trunk of my car to get a copy.

Then, everything changed.

Flipping through the pages, they realized they had completely misunderstood the purpose of my book. What followed was just strange to me. The owner openly shared their disappointment that the book was not what they had expected. In their mind, the book was bad simply because I had not written exactly what they anticipated.

The monologue that followed was surreal, and it just wouldn’t stop. To make matters worse, they did this out in the open, with other people around. Suddenly, there were so many “suggestions” on how I could have done things differently, and lists of people I should have talked to. There was absolutely zero understanding of my vision and thought around the book.

Through it all, I remained surprisingly calm. Honestly, my inner ‘Karen’ didn’t even make an appearance, I just stayed elegantly calm. And while their behavior might not strictly be defined as unprofessional since it wasn’t about their trade, it was a massive professional mistake. Because of this, I will never return to their business, and I will be sure to share my experience with anyone willing to listen.

I offered to take the book back. Clearly, this was no longer a book they wanted.

I was not upset about the fact that they did not like it. I could see past that. I knew it was about expectations, not my writing. But still, I was flabbergasted.

As I try to find the words for what I just experienced: it was just sheer rudeness. To speak so negatively about something that wasn’t at fault and to so openly share that moment with me, who had created it with love.

Some might argue this is an example of freedom of speech. But it is not. A person has the right to think and say what they want, and freedom of speech simply means the government cannot limit those viewpoints. This was not a censorship issue.

This was a human issue. It is socially unacceptable to dump your limitless, unfiltered disappointment onto someone else. Trying to make them feel, it’s their fault. To do that is just rude. And stupid.