The Ramifications of NICE

On my fridge I created a magnet bumper sticker that says “greet everyone as you would your dog”…I also like this one, “be nice or leave” or how about: “the first one to smile wins!”Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that other drivers rarely wave a thanks when you kindly let them pull out in front of you? Ever wondered what the number would be if in a month, you counted how many pedestrians wave a thanks for letting them cross? Or how many times recently have you held a door for someone going into a grocery store or bank and they never bother to look at you much less say thanks…even if you have combed your hair and showered that day.

I do notice more often than not, if I’m at Starbuck’s, people are usually polite and helpful on the way out, especially if I am carrying a bunch of coffees. One caveat about Starbuck’s, which should be common sense, if you hold up the line with some such nonsense like texting your BFF while others wait for their caffeine fix — your life ain’t worth an empty raw sugar packet!

Isn’t it sad that we are now learning our manners from movie theatres…when those instructions or funny cartoons pop up and ask us to not talk loudly, have our cell phones turned off or please refrain from text messaging? What ever happened to common courtesy, let alone common sense?

I heard somewhere that actress, Goldie Hawn (her autobiography is great by the way) is part of some kind of nice people’s club. It sounds silly, doesn’t it, a nice people’s club? But what if there is such a thing? Maybe we could reform some schoolyard bullies. My neighbor, who teaches 3rd grade, says that bullying is a big problem in schools. So, what would happen if we made a 6 month enrollment the mandatory sentence for all school yard bullies, something might change. See, they’d be surrounded by people trying hard to be nice and maybe for some, this would be a novel experience and it might rub off. Hey, it could happen! I know what you might be thinking, “what a silly idea” or some such explicative loaded phrase…but they say a yawn is catching, and smiles are infectious, so why not niceness?

I read a business book called the No Asshole Rule and in it the author writes about people who we’ve all, at one time or another, worked for with or with, they’re called: consummate assholes. I bet some of them started as schoolyard bullies. The author sites the movie, The Devil Wears Prada where the protagonist (a fashion editor who terrorizes everyone) is a bonafide, consummate asshole. The author points out that if you account for the amount of time an HR department spends writing ads, screening applicants, interviewing, hiring and this translates into dollars so the cost of having a consummate asshole on staff can be staggering. How many of us have had asshole bosses or coworkers and called in sick or quit just to get away from them? This translates into time and money lost because productivity goes down. When you think of it that way, the effects of being nice or considerate aren’t so silly anymore. (read the book, his figures bear him out)

Just a thought I caught flying by…What do you think?

~ by veritas07 on March 28, 2008.