that has helped me on:

in Passau I lived above a pub, and they had a cleaning woman who came at noon and did all the floors. When I left my flat I had to walk over the wet floors, and she would often scowl at me then and once she barked that she had just wiped the floor; and I was like “Hey, I live here and want to leave the house, if you don’t mind!”
Still, I was laways very friendly (timid!), saying “good morning”, smiling, and she always stared at me as if I’d just crawled out of the gutter.

Then, one day, I hear her voice, telling another woman if she needed a toilet she could use the one up the stairs.
That toilet was in a small extra room which belonged to me. I always left it open, coz there was nothing valuable in it, but it was part of my flat, and the cleaning woman knew this.
And when I heard her telling s/o else to use my toilet, for some reason I went totally utterly mad. I dashed down the stairs, said “you may use my toilet, no prob” (to the woman in need) and shouted “and YOU!” (to the cleaning woman) “how DARE you command over my property without asking me?” I went on a little while, very sharp, very clear, she tried to defend herself, I cut her short, I was formidable!
Then I rushed back into my flat,
and then I broke down.
How could I?!? I had offended the pearl! Now they all would hate me! I had made a fuzz about something so insignificant!

What happened?
They lady from the pub laughed; and the cleaning woman suddenly became friendly when I greeted her, and one day she rang on my door and asked if I could help her create a flyer (she was very active in animal protection), which I gladly did, and Easter I found the biggest Egg full of chocolates at my door, from her.

And that taught me that some people won’t respect you if you let them treat you like shit.