Acknowledging someone feels legitimate frustration or anger at something that needs to be fixed is not the same as validating what they said. Depending on your

Acknowledging someone feels legitimate frustration or anger at something that needs to be fixed is not the same as validating what they said. Depending on your relationship with the person, you can defuse things any number of ways. The goal is to switch them from thinking emotionally to thinking logically. Humor works well. I’ve said something like this in the past: “Hold up, let’s see if we can fix this before we start executing volunteers. The paperwork just isn’t worth it.”