What To Do If Someone Is Offended

I’ve been pondering this issue a bit the past few hours, given that someone I know felt offended by something said at an event I was host for recently.

I have validated that person and not just ignored the words, and I have expressed sorrow toward them for their feeling offended.

I expressed my approval of them having been at the event, but didn’t sink into examining the nitty gritty details of that offense they felt, because they had also indicated their own personal life events were what had lead to them being particularly offended.

Some of this information was already known to me, but not to anyone else at that event. I have known this person for a while now, but others present either don’t know her well, or didn’t previously know her at all.

It Could Have Gone Bad
If I had ignored the email message I’d received, that could have (rightly) lead to this person possibly feeling ignored, and may have mulled over a perceived my lack of care about their feelings.

If I’d told them not to be so silly, and belittled them for being overly sensitive, that would have been completely wrong, and that could rightly have been found by them to be offensive.

If I were to tell people in general who were at the event later on, about this person being offended by the words said, that would be an abuse of the trust they have in me, and would have brought bought further offense.