Maybe put your hands up a little and moved them back and forth as you said “hey, look you to CALM. down.”

hey op you need to calm down

After working in public service, you learn very quickly this is usually a bad way to de escalate a situation. Police should almost never say this. It usually escalates the situation.

“Take a deep breath and let’s talk” or “I’m here to help, so talk to me…”.

When dealing with the work place, I redirect. “Let’s figure this out together. Let’s find a solution”. This one I learned from a really great manager I had once. I had another dept manager screaming at me, totally raging. The head pulled us in to her office, stopped him for a moment and said “What we need here is a solution. Can the problem be fixed”. I replied “Yes”, and the dept manager replied “No”. She then replied “We have to give him a chance to fix this first”. I fixed the problem and the rest of the company heads were happy. The dept manager was more frustrated that I actually fixed the issue. He soon left the company after that… So redirecting towards a constructive end is optimal.

Sometimes it’s just better to escape the situation. To flee. Fight or flight.

There are too many circumstances to give examples of them all, but I think you get the picture.