Are You Myopic?

It means nearsighted, but I'm not asking about whether you can read roadsigns without glasses. I'm wondering if you can see past the nose on your own face when it comes to understanding what others are doing and thinking.

When you are interacting (read: arguing) with others, do you see their point? Do you get where they are coming from?

I posted a few weeks ago about my epiphany regarding heroin addicts. I have become convinced that ice down the pants must work sometimes to wake up those narcotic overdoses that we don't get called on.

I also believe that convalescent home nurses always say the patient isn't their normal patient because it's true. How often do we pick up nursing home patients and get the same line from the nurse? Maybe, just maybe, it's because that's the most common reason for a convalescent home nurse to call an ambulance.

Just do the math. There are a lot more nursing home patients not going to the ER than there are patients going to the ER. Why? Because the vast majority of the patients have the same caregivers today that they've had for the last 3 months.

I was in a heated discussion today about customer service and work ethic. The person I was talking with believed that the current lack of work ethic commonly viewed in our society's younger workforce is a problem with the workers.

Maybe not.

I've always thought younger -- newer -- workers learn how to behave by emulating their older peers. It's the reason my daughter, a baby air traffic controller, and my son, a fairly new Army medic, think it's cool to complain about their jobs all the time -- even while they love doing them. Because they're mimicking the older, more burned-out crowd.

So if newer workers are looking to their older counterparts to figure out how to act, aren't they also taking cues from their employers? Doesn't corporate culture figure into the equation?

If an employer does only what's necessary to fulfill a contract, doesn't that give its employees the impression that the minimum is all that's expected? Haven't we all heard bosses complaining that employees don't do anything without being asked?

What message does that same boss convey when he refuses to refund a broken product because the customer was a day late returning it? The absolute minimum, folks, that's all we need to do.

That's what I mean by myopic. Are you looking at the world only from your own point of view, or do you see how things look from the outside in? The next time you complain about other people being lazy, stupid or making mistakes, try to see it from their point of view.

Maybe it's the message they were getting.