Ah, you say, another one of those old fogies who doesn’t understand that the professional world has changed! Well, yes, I like to think of myself as an old fuddy-duddy, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering about a certain loss of civility…
You certainly know colleagues who are in the office, certainly to work, but who don’t care about the environment in which they work if it doesn’t directly concern them.
You can certainly see who I mean: David, who turns away from the coffee machine as soon as he sees that the water tank is empty; Marcel, who uses the latest toilet paper, but doesn’t have the sense to put a new roll in the holder when there are at least 3 in the reserve; Marie, who treats the washbasin like a swimming pool; Julie, who gets into the lift that you also want to take, but presses the button to close the door, smiling at you stupidly; and Robert, who jams the printer but ‘forgets’ to fix it or report the fault, leaving on the sly. Has this ever happened to you? Come on, come on…
Living together” is certainly not easy and requires a great deal of self-commitment, but it is the glue that binds good relations in the workplace and virtually guarantees a peaceful climate between colleagues.
What seemed obvious just a few years ago has become exotic, even an anomaly for many. Yet these small, everyday gestures add fuel to the fire, showing that you ‘also’ think of others, not to receive thanks, but simply because that’s how you’ve been brought up, because it gives you pleasure to please others or simply because it seems natural to you, no more, no less.
Is it empathy, respect, good manners? maybe a bit of all of that at the same time. Most of the time, David, Marcel, Marie, and the others don’t think about doing harm, they don’t even think about it, because they haven’t learned or they’ve ‘unlearned’!
The response we often hear to this is always a little short-sighted, even perverse: others don’t do it for me, so I don’t see why I should do it for others!
At the risk of once again sounding like an old dodderer, Saint Francis of Assisi once said: “Begin by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible and you will achieve the impossible without realising it”. There you go…
Everyone has their worries, their concerns, their personal challenges: so, it would be wrong to throw stones at anyone. However, a little gesture here and there often doesn’t cost much and gives pleasure to others. Whether or not there’s something in return shouldn’t be a precondition.
In a consumerist world where the ‘me’ has taken precedence over the ‘we’, it’s true that including work colleagues in your reflections is paradoxical, incongruous and even indecent, and yet…
Filling the water tank at the coffee machine or waiting for a colleague who wants to take the lift doesn’t seem insurmountable, and it’s not the job or the rank that should be an obstacle: there are no foolish jobs, only foolish people…
As you will have understood, I make mistakes every day, but I try not to look too much like a clumsy fool within the limits of my means: I’ve had so many smiles in return that I still believe it’s worth it!
Good thoughts, happy weeks and see you soon.