Quote:
Originally Posted by aimlesshiker
I respect my landlord communicating her standards of cleanliness to me. However, it's damaging to my self esteem when she's constantly reminding me to do basic stuff in a condescending tone. How do I gracefully accept her comments, because right now an email she sent this morning is making me feel like crap and distracting me from work.  I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to make excuses, I just need to not get so hung up on what she says. |
It's only damaging to one's self esteem when you hold the critical person in high enough regard that their opinions and criticisms hold weight. In your case, the way you describe it there are two ways to look at it, first off, you take her criticisms to heart because you worry about their incorrect opinions of your caring for the house or two, you realize that you know how well you take care of it, you know that this manager is a critical and controlling landlord. One choice makes it continue to defeat you and feel bad, the other asserts yourself and despite opinions of others helps you to retain your confidence in your abilities and behaviors.
Assert yourself to the landlord respectfully and graciously accept her input but give your own and make it clear that you won't be beaten down by someone being overbearing and critical. You can either respectfully accept by saying "ok thanks, will do" and go on about your activities without taking it to heart or you can assert yourself stating the reality of things - without being accusatory or disrespectful just matter-of-fact state that you do take care of the place but thanks for the reminder - kind of thing.