Respect for People
I had a conversation with someone who was venting about her boss’ rude behavior. He berated her for being late (even 5 minutes), overworked her during the day, and failed to ever show appreciation. This person is a hard worker, so I trust she’s not exaggerating.
My response to her was, “Respect for people is respect for people. If he’s that way with you, then he likely doesn’t respect customers or his own family either.”
She found it to be more profound than I did. In a conversation a week or so later, she spouted off at me, “Respect for people is respect for people.”
Maybe there’s something to that.
You are absolutely right Dustin. While it’s not profound, it’s just so darn true, you can’t help but love it. Well done!
How timely. My wife, who is a second grade school teacher, is on maternity leave. She showed up at a teachers meeting last week despite being on maternity leave. Before the meeting started her boss / Principle (who has a reputation for being a power hungry guy with no personality) called her into his office and began to berate her for not initiating enough contact with her long-term substitute. The man was so rude and out of line that it put my wife into tears. My wife was blindsided! We have spoken to several teachers and a few administrators in other school districts who were appalled by the Principals behavior.
Here’s the rub. The Principal never…not once…set the expectation before she left to initiate ANY contact with the sub. My wife was even returning eMails to her sub the day she got home after having an emergency C-section!!
I would also like to point out my wife has had nothing but excellent performance evaluations and this Principal has told her she’s one of the best in the school!
He treats his staff like they are second-class citizens and often will not say hello to the children walking through the hallways.
You hit the nail on the head, Dustin. Respect for people is respect for people.
Cory, thanks for sharing your wife’s story.
It’s sad that we see people as defined by their role and use that to justify how we treat them. We speak to employees this way. We don’t look our waiter in the eye. We make generalizations about the teenager behind the register.
We all do it. It’s a sad commentary on our devaluation of people.