Attitudinal problems
The word attitude hides the actual behaviour.
What is an attitude?
When you look at it, an attitude is a judgment we make about a person from what that person says and does. It is the label we put on someone else's behaviour when we do not like it much. "But it isn't just what he said," you argue. "It's the way he said it. The tone, the face, the manner."
Every person has an attitude of their own, and it shows in how they behave. You still cannot read the whole attitude off the behaviour. Status, parents, and surroundings do a large part of the deciding.
The problem is simpler to separate than it looks.
When you need to speak to someone who could use an adjustment, do not use the word "attitude." It is useless. A person with a genuinely bad attitude has heard that word so often that it no longer lands. Say the thing itself. Is the person grabbing credit? Spending the day in talk? Pouting when they do not get their way? Rude, surly, inconsiderate? Those are different acts. All of them get the same label.
I feel that attitude is not a problem until you treat it as one. Everyone has a way of their own. The only weapon is to correct your own attitude. That is what you fight with in this world.
First written in 2009 on virtual eye.