Whether or not to accede to a request is our choice. When we choose to honor a request, we are giving, and the other is receiving.

Sometimes we may choose wrongly, i.e. we may have exercised bad judgment. We give when it might have been better to say “no”.

Why blame the receiver? Why call the person a taker and infer that somehow he or she has taken against our will?

No! We always have a choice. We are not victims. And I don’t think what your reader meant. Rather, that’s your interpretation of “difficulty saying no”, not hers. She’s simpley expressing her concern over her difficulty setting and maintaining boundaries and how that difficulty impacts her effectiveness.

However, I would like to suggest that if one finds it necessary to say no more too often, one’s expectations ought to be examined very carefully. As Pindar says, “You get what you expect.”