Do you stand out as someone who has a pleasant attitude that gets things done or someone the whole office dreads coming to for anything? What about that one unpleasant person in the workplace that you hated to interact with? Do you remember your thoughts and words to other co-workers about that person?
We have heard the Golden Rule of treating others the way we would like to be treated.Try having the kind of attitude that you would like to work with. You may be the one that sets the “workplace atmosphere.”
Something to think about: In Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” the fifth principle is “Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood.” So many times we want understanding and there is truly nothing wrong with that. I want to offer a new perspective that many in the workplace do not consider. There are people you work with every day that leave home in the morning with a great deal of stress. Some are dealing with getting small children to school before work, traffic pressures, challenges with spouses, and financial stresses of all kinds. In addition, there are factors like caretaking for elderly parents and illness within the family.
The workplace could be much more pleasant if we consider that we truly do not know what people are dealing with. We spend a large portion of our lives in the workplace. I encourage you to be more open to getting to know who you are working next to. You may be very pleasantly surprised.
Consider this: One can affect many. Will you be the one?
This article posting is from the book "Secretarial Sanity" written by Cheryl Kuchka. A full copy of the entire book can be purchased on Ebay at the following link:
