What's your "people" philosophy?

Remember Charles Schultz? He was the American cartoonist whose comic strip, “Peanuts,” proved to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. “Peanuts” is still widely reprinted on a daily basis and continues to share valuable “P2P” lessons about “people (and beagle) philosophy” through those timeless characters! I still love to read it…

When you were growing up, how many times did you hear, Be Nice or Mind Your Manners? Are you still tuning in to that basic “people philosophy” as an adult?
What about in your workplace? It seems like we spend more time with our coworkers than we do with our friends and family these days. So when bad manners and negativity run rampant in our workplaces, it can be even more frustrating. What do you think escalates bad manners even further? You guessed it…like it or not, it’s technology!

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Texting has been blamed for a lot of things – harassment among teenagers, driver distraction, and bad grades among students. Now it’s also being blamed for bad manners at work.”

In a research study of 9,000 U.S. workers and managers by Thunderbird School of Global Management, it was determined that all the texting and emailing interrupting us in meetings and face-to-face conversations at work erodes human civility and make us, well, for lack of a better word, rude! “All the e-conversations steal our attention from the people nearby, amounting to what once would have been a snub,” says Christine Pearson, author of The Cost of Bad Manners.

Here we go again…It keeps coming back to “P2P” (people-to-people) at home and at work! So, let’s make more of an effort to get back to the basics of minding our manners. When we use the phone or any other form of technology, and especially when we’re F2F - to smile more and adopt a “be nice” philosophy.

Novel idea – Practicing a “Be Nice” philosophy might make you and your co-workers actually want to come to work each day! The by-product is a boost in morale, increased productivity, finer customer service and improved results! Good grief!