Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People
Work context · O*NET
Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People is a work-context dimension in the O*NET database — one of the standardized conditions O*NET uses to describe the environment a job is done in , grouped under Interpersonal Relationships. O*NET defines it by asking workers: "How frequently does the worker have to deal with unpleasant, angry, or discourteous individuals as part of the job requirements?." It is rated for 894 occupations, which average 2.89 out of 5 (moderate relative to other context dimensions).
How it's measured
O*NET rates each occupation on this dimension on a 1–5 context-importance scale (the CX scale), where higher means the condition is a more frequent or more central part of the work. The figures on this page are those occupation-level ratings — a description of working conditions as workers report them, not a judgment about pay, difficulty, or whether a job is "good."
| Economy-wide average | 2.89 / 5 | Mean across all 894 rated occupations |
| Range across occupations | 1.24–4.77 | Lowest to highest occupation rating (spread 3.53) |
| Intensity vs. other dimensions | 50th pct | Where this dimension's average ranks among all O*NET work-context dimensions |
Occupations where it's highest
The occupations that rate this condition strongest on the 1–5 scale.
Occupations where it's lowest
The occupations that rate this condition weakest — where it is rarely part of the work.
| Occupation | Rating | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Cutters and Trimmers, Hand | 1.24 | |
| Rock Splitters, Quarry | 1.37 | |
| Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators | 1.42 | |
| Software Developers | 1.46 | |
| Animal Breeders | 1.50 | |
| Dishwashers | 1.54 | |
| Biological Technicians | 1.58 | |
| Dredge Operators | 1.58 | |
| Food Batchmakers | 1.58 | |
| Models | 1.60 | |
| Fallers | 1.62 | |
| Electronics Engineers, Except Computer | 1.66 | |
| Actuaries | 1.67 | |
| Fuel Cell Engineers | 1.67 | |
| Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 1.72 | |
| Astronomers | 1.74 | |
| Environmental Economists | 1.74 | |
| Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 1.75 | |
| Operations Research Analysts | 1.81 | |
| Tile and Stone Setters | 1.82 | |
| Economists | 1.83 | |
| Hydrologists | 1.83 | |
| Bioinformatics Technicians | 1.85 | |
| Agricultural Equipment Operators | 1.86 | |
| Business Intelligence Analysts | 1.86 |
How AI is used by roles where dealing with unpleasant, angry, or discourteous people is central
A working condition is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the occupations where it is most central and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across the roles that rate this condition 3 or higher (CX-rating-weighted). 57.1% of the 350 occupations where this condition is present carry observed AI-usage data (200 roles).
Across those roles, 45.5% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.9% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.47 / 5.
| Collaboration pattern | Share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| directive | 28.6% | AI does it; you give the instruction |
| learning | 22.4% | you ask AI to explain or teach |
| task iteration | 21.2% | you and AI go back and forth |
| feedback loop | 2.4% | AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback |
| validation | 1.8% | you do it; AI checks your work |
Roles behind this signal
The occupations where this condition is most central and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.
| Occupation | Condition (1–5) | Works with AI | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors | 3.8 | 70.6% | 4.0/5 |
| Editors | 3.2 | 68.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Office Clerks, General | 3.1 | 36.5% | 3.0/5 |
| Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.4 | 65.8% | 3.8/5 |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 3.4 | 36.3% | 3.0/5 |
| Cashiers | 4.1 | 42.8% | 3.0/5 |
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 3.4 | 62.3% | 4.0/5 |
| Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 3.4 | 62.8% | 4.0/5 |
| Interpreters and Translators | 3.2 | 40.2% | 3.0/5 |
| Mental Health Counselors | 3.6 | 70.6% | 4.0/5 |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | 3.5 | 51.1% | 3.0/5 |
| Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School | 3.8 | 58.3% | 4.0/5 |
Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. This is a role-weighted projection from AEI-linked occupations where this condition is central, not a direct measurement of AI use for the condition itself. Shares are weighted by how central the condition is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.
Sources for this page
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Singulariki. "Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/work-context/dealing-with-unpleasant-angry-or-discourteous-people
Singulariki. (2026). Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/work-context/dealing-with-unpleasant-angry-or-discourteous-people
@misc{singulariki-dealing-with-unpleasant-angry-or-discourteous-people,
title = {Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/work-context/dealing-with-unpleasant-angry-or-discourteous-people}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.