Yes, I do.
And like you say, even just being friendly makes a difference. Just generally being "nice" makes the people around you happier. I had two contrasting days recently. One day I was out out several different places running errands. Everyone I talked to was happy, joking around, and in a good mood. The next day everyone was a total ass and it brought me back to hating everyone. I'm sure they had been dealing with total asses and that's why they were acting that way. It's a cause-effect deal.
I'm not a people person, not a stranger person and not a small talk person...but I try hard not to be a bummer. Some people are bummers. At work I treat everyone with respect and make sure they know I appreciate them helping me/working with me on things, often when they don't have to. It goes both ways. The more accommodating you are to me, the more accommodating I'll be.
When I was building my house a lumber driver backed into my garage to offload my wood plank flooring. He cut the straps and part of the load had shifted and came proceeded to fall off, damaging the trim board on the garage opening and ripping a big gash in the insulation of my garage door (boards flipped up). I had been talking to the dude when he first pulled up and he was really friendly. He started freaking out "Oh man, the owner's gonna be pissed. I could get fired over this incident." He said something about another incident he'd had, something like losing a photo of a load he dropped (proof of delivery) and part of it being stolen IIRC. He was just kind of talking out loud to himself about some bad luck he'd been having.
He had been talking to me thinking I was just a worker. I said "Dude, I own this house and I'm the one building it. Don't worry about it, **** happens. I'll just sand and fill that trim board and get a new insulation panel. No big deal." He was super grateful. Gave me his boss' cell phone number in case I change my mind and wanted to report it. I never called.
I could have been all hardass about it, but why? That dude didn't need that, especially if he could lose his job over it. I went on to help him pick up each and every piece of the spilled flooring and stacked it in the garage while talking to him. Was a lot, probably took 2 hours. I can't believe they sent him alone. I fixed the trim board but left the ripped insulation panel and I think of that goofy dude every time I go to the garage. Hope his luck changed.
I'd hope someone would do the same for me if I was in his shoes.
That's awesome.
And like you say, even just being friendly makes a difference. Just generally being "nice" makes the people around you happier. I had two contrasting days recently. One day I was out out several different places running errands. Everyone I talked to was happy, joking around, and in a good mood. The next day everyone was a total ass and it brought me back to hating everyone. I'm sure they had been dealing with total asses and that's why they were acting that way. It's a cause-effect deal.
I'm not a people person, not a stranger person and not a small talk person...but I try hard not to be a bummer. Some people are bummers. At work I treat everyone with respect and make sure they know I appreciate them helping me/working with me on things, often when they don't have to. It goes both ways. The more accommodating you are to me, the more accommodating I'll be.
When I was building my house a lumber driver backed into my garage to offload my wood plank flooring. He cut the straps and part of the load had shifted and came proceeded to fall off, damaging the trim board on the garage opening and ripping a big gash in the insulation of my garage door (boards flipped up). I had been talking to the dude when he first pulled up and he was really friendly. He started freaking out "Oh man, the owner's gonna be pissed. I could get fired over this incident." He said something about another incident he'd had, something like losing a photo of a load he dropped (proof of delivery) and part of it being stolen IIRC. He was just kind of talking out loud to himself about some bad luck he'd been having.
He had been talking to me thinking I was just a worker. I said "Dude, I own this house and I'm the one building it. Don't worry about it, **** happens. I'll just sand and fill that trim board and get a new insulation panel. No big deal." He was super grateful. Gave me his boss' cell phone number in case I change my mind and wanted to report it. I never called.
I could have been all hardass about it, but why? That dude didn't need that, especially if he could lose his job over it. I went on to help him pick up each and every piece of the spilled flooring and stacked it in the garage while talking to him. Was a lot, probably took 2 hours. I can't believe they sent him alone. I fixed the trim board but left the ripped insulation panel and I think of that goofy dude every time I go to the garage. Hope his luck changed.
I'd hope someone would do the same for me if I was in his shoes.
That's awesome.
