Time to be friendly:

Well, well, well, there is a silver lining in this cloud of bad news.  Listen and see if you spot it.

Years ago I was meeting with a manager in his office when his telephone rang.  He ignored it.  Being polite, I suggested that it would be okay if he wanted to answer it.  “No”, he said, “You took the trouble to come to see me.  If this caller wants to talk to me, he can wait or do what you did, visit with me.”

Let’s scroll forward to recent times.  I’m an outsider in a meeting when a cell phone rings. The meeting falters as almost everyone grabs at their cell phones.  I look at the CEO; he shrugs.

Well, I’ve seen signs recently of a return to good manners and polite behavior.  Why?  People afraid of losing their jobs and companies afraid of losing customers are behaving much better.

And we seem to have more time on our hands to be friendly.  I like it.

I’m James McIntosh at nonsenseatwork dot com

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© 2009 James Henry McIntosh