10 Oct She’s Fallen and She Can’t Get Up
My sister Millie (alias to protect the not-so-innocent) retired last week, having been an elementary-school teacher for over 30 years. On the last day of school, the entire student body and faculty had a “clap-off parade” for the fifth graders, with Millie leading the way. From how she tells it, Millie unleashed her former Dancerette self, dancing and marching through the crowd. At the end of the parade, Millie wanted to get out of the way of the drumline (yes, there was actually a drumline for the send-off), and she tripped over one of those small, plastic orange cones. The next thing you know, Millie’s leg is bleeding from the concrete kiss, but it’s the next thing she heard that literally made her crack up.
“You’re going to need to move so I can get a good view of my son when he walks by.”
This somewhat unfathomable demand was uttered by a parent, directed to my still-on-the-ground-and-bleeding sister.
The good news is that Millie was so incredulous at this woman’s demand that she couldn’t stop laughing. The bad news is that no one offered to assist my sister in her time of need. Everyone was so concerned with what was going on with their child that they were clueless or just plain apathetic about what had just happened right in front of them. Fortunately, Millie was able to push herself up to limp to the side.
Have we truly gotten to the point where we are desensitized to another person’s distress simply because we are so self-absorbed? Have we traded EMpathy for MEpathy?
When it comes to our jobs, we’ve all been guilty at times of thinking what is happening in our life must be more important, more intense, more demanding, more relevant. We’re too busy to return a phone call, too focused to see what is happening right in front of us, too distracted to notice someone who could use a little empathy.
I have to remind myself at times that an unreturned phone call from a friend may mean that she’s dealing with an urgent matter. A client’s inaction may actually be that they’re going through a significant change in their business. A colleague’s snippy attitude may be the result of his perception of how I reacted to his idea. We are all so focused on trying to make it through the day, the week and the month that we fail to realize everyone else is doing the same. Найти настоящие договорные матчи в интернете сейчас достаточно сложно, так как уходит не только огромное количество времени на поиск проверенного и надежного информатора в данной сфере, но и финансовых ресурсов, ведь никто не будет предоставлять инсайдерскую информацию бесплатно. Воспользовавшись покупкой инсайдов на сайте Dogmatchi.org по договорным матчам Вам не придется искать информатора по договорнякам, так как этот сайт занимается предоставлением договорных событий от уже неоднократно проверенных и давно зарекомендовавшихся себя в узких кругах информаторов по дог матчам. Рекомендуем данный ресурс всем кто хочет приумножить своё материальное благосостояние и получить хорошее настроение от траты выигрышей на свои желания с заработанных денег от ставок на договорняки!
The next time you don’t receive a return phone call from a friend–be a friend and call her again without a guilt trip.
The next time a client doesn’t respond–search for new ways to reach out to them without any expectation in return, such as sending an interesting article to which they can relate, or write a handwritten note just to check in. In many cases, they are so busy putting out fires that they are challenged to focus on what needs to be done to stop those fires.
The next time a colleague acts a bit snippy–don’t call him on the carpet in public. Instead, be open-minded and remind yourself that perception is reality. And perhaps you did get a bit dismissive with his idea!
As for my sister, her falling down provided the perfect example about working through a rough time at your job. She proved that the hardest part when you fall is working your way back up. Literally.