Alison Green on becoming more assertive at work, especially in the face of sexism:

The problem: People were saying inappropriate and sexist things to me, and I kept getting too anxious to tell them to knock it off.

• Give up on ever having that perfect retort that would wither them to their bones, or beautiful speech that would change their life. Instead, I wrote out some very simple, one line, adjustable scripts for every situation I’d come across.
• Embrace the power of awkward silence. Since I don’t have it in me to make a scene instead just say my one line script, and not say anything else or make it better. Let it be uncomfortable without anyone ever being able to say I was being unprofessional.