Some people are directly aggressive, meaning they aren’t afraid to express exactly how they feel. And other people are passive-aggressive. “Passive-aggressive behavior is best described as a pattern ...

Emily Laurence is a journalist, freelance writer and certified health coach living in Raleigh, North Carolina. She specializes in writing about mental health, healthy aging and overall wellness. For ...

From 'must be nice' to 'I guess I can't do anything right,' a lot of us are guilty of using these.

Passive-aggressive people often say things that sound harmless at first, but leave you feeling confused or attacked. The phrases passive-aggressive people use without even realizing it can be ...

The professional atmosphere of a typical workplace setting can inhibit the direct and honest expression of emotions such as anger and frustration. Yet even in the most business-like environments, ...

Most of us like to think of ourselves as pretty reasonable communicators. We don’t yell. We don’t slam doors. We’d never say anything deliberately cruel. And yet, there are phrases that slip out of ...

Have you ever had to deal with a sarcastic co-worker? Or maybe you've asked your colleagues for feedback only to find later that they gossiped or spread rumors behind your back. Seventy percent of ...

If you’ve ever dealt with a mother-in-law (or some other hard-to-please Patty!) who says something is "Totally fine!" when it clearly isn’t, been on the receiving end of the silent treatment, or been ...

Call it hostile cooperation, sugarcoated hostility, or compliant defiance. Call it all of the above. Along with these synonymous phrases, the term passive aggression is an oxymoron. Passive-aggressive ...

Outright anger is fairly easy to identify, but passive-aggressive behavior can be a little more subtle. Although those who engage in it think it has no consequences, it can actually do everything from ...