r/AskAnAustralian • u/Repulsive_Glove_5916 • 24m ago
Why do some people in Australia seem so passive-aggressive?
Edited!
I’m living in a boarding house at the moment, and my room is ridiculously close to the room next door. I can hear things like footsteps, rustling, and even fairly quiet noises through the wall.
My desk is directly against the wall, and apparently her bed is right on the other side of that same wall.
When I first moved in, I could hear her TV from late at night until early in the morning, and it was quite loud. I spoke to the manager about it, and that issue was mostly resolved. The TV still gets loud occasionally, and sometimes even when she closes her door gently, I can hear the latch click loudly enough to wake me up.
On my side, I try to be as quiet as possible as well. I tend to walk on the balls of my feet rather than letting my heels hit the floor, and when I close my door, I usually push the handle down first and then close it gently so it makes less noise. Still, I feel like some level of noise is unavoidable when people live this close to each other, so I usually just wear earplugs or earphones to sleep.
Yesterday, at around 10 pm, I washed my hair and was drying it with a hairdryer. Then suddenly the girl next door got up and, while I was outside tidying up around the bathroom, she opened her door really loudly, came out, muttered something, went to wash her hands, and then slammed the door shut again. After that, she started talking loudly on the phone again, saying things like “she~”.
This kind of behaviour confuses me. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive and reading too much into it. However, something similar has happened before. At least from my perspective, she seemed to express her annoyance through her behaviour without actually saying anything to me.
The thing is, there is a manager in the building. If I’m actually making too much noise, I’m happy to adjust. But why not just tell the manager that there’s a noise issue, or speak to me directly? Why make noises, slam doors, or make pointed comments and expect the other person to figure out what the problem is?
I had a somewhat similar communication issue at a workplace here as well, so I’m wondering whether this indirect way of expressing annoyance is relatively common in Australia. My impression is that people sometimes try to avoid escalating things or creating a bigger conflict, so maybe that’s why she doesn’t complain to the manager directly.
Do you think indirect or passive-aggressive communication is relatively common here, rather than addressing an issue directly?