It's funny that you should post this today....I just had the same conversation with Dave last night. He was in a carppy mood all day yesterday, and I unfortunately kept catching the brunt of his grumpiness. I finally had had enough, and told him that I didn;t know what got up his butt, but would he kindly remove it before he spoke to or interacted with me again.....anyway, he apologized, and said that I hadn't done anything wrong, I was just there. I'm the closest person he has, and it's easy to lash out at me.
I try not to rise to the occasion, if you know what I mean. I try to stay out of the cycle of grumpiness. If I can be nice to someone who's being crabby, then perhaps I can break the circle instead of passing it on to someone else.
Easy to say...bloody hard to do sometimes.
What brought this article on? Just curious.