Chris Guillebeau, author of The Art of Non-Conformity (Amazon, Book Depository), published a post last week worth reading titled Be Nice to the Cleaners. While interviewing entrepreneurs for his next book, someone gave the advice “be sure you are nice to the cleaners”.
Perhaps he/she was meaning that you shouldn’t give people who have access to sensitive information reason to abuse it, but digging deeper, maybe the message is: treat everyone with respect no matter their position, your mood or how they treat you.
Chris says “you can learn a lot about someone by watching how they treat the people in supportive roles around them”, which reminded me of this. One of the Kardashians’ boyfriends gets a new assistant and ends up berating him in front of the crew for a photo shoot. Apart from generally just being a dicky thing to do, it’s unlikely to impress anyone he planned to continue a professional relationship with. The assistant quits and calls him an “egotistical pompous asshole”.
A handful of recruiters commented on the post saying that they often check with reception and admin staff and base hiring decisions on the candidate’s treatment of them. In one case the boss was actually sitting behind the reception desk. The guy got the job because he was the only one who actually treated the “receptionist” well.
This is another reason to take better care of ourselves.
When you’re at your worst, tired, stressed and worn out… that’s when people find out who you really are, that’s what people will judge you on. That’s when you have a chance to really show who you are. Do you take it out on someone else? Or do you dig deeper and show compassion anyway?
I tweeted yesterday about an email I sent to multiple recipients, of which a few took offense to the wording of, which wasn’t intended. Flipping the above quote around, I can’t change how I worded the email, or change how it was interpreted, but I can choose how to reply to their reaction.
The Do Not Call List could be a good idea if calls from telemarketers are annoying.
Let’s try to be nice to everyone, not just the cleaners.
Image credit: B.G. – Oodwin