Be Respectful to Others and Avoid Spit in Your Tea

You may have heard of several stories in the news or online video’s where disgusting acts of spitting in boss's drink by office assistance or subordinates were reported. Then let me inform you, these are real stories as I witnessed the same during one of my construction projects in the middle east.

When I started work for my first construction project almost 15 years ago; I had the chance to work closely with and around the blue-collar workers. I can tell you that these people are amazing. They are the best hard workers and you can find them as good problem solvers as they have the real-life experiences. I still, personally know a lot of such workers who are up before the sun and don’t stop working until after dark so that white collar employees like us may feel comfortable. It may be easy to take for granted all that manual laborers do for companies, but I personally think, they deserve to be respected more than anyone else. In fact, I found it very easy to treat these men and women with respect. The easiest thing you can do for them is give them a handshake, show respect and gratitude and thank them whatever they do even small job of bringing a cup of tea for you.

We had a hard-working office boy who was responsible for serving tea and drinks to the staff during fast paced stressful project. He was the first one to arrive in the morning and last one to leave in the evening. He was a nice guy, as most of the people had good relations with him. He was especially good with me as I cared for him, helped him whenever he needed, and I was always respectful to him. I learned in beginning of my career to be respectful to all co-workers and specially more caring for blue collar employees. However, due to different backgrounds and cultural differences, not all of people showed such level of respect for these low paid blue-collar employees. Such was the case with our project manager who was mostly disrespectful to such employees.

Being respectful to fellow workers is a key requirement for a healthy work environment. It promotes teamwork and increases productivity and efficiencies in the workplace. It lets employees know they are valued for their abilities, qualities and achievements, and that their role is important to their company's success no matter what how small is the role.

The office boy told about the project manager’s attitude towards him and requested me to talk with the boss. I had the good terms with project manager, and I did request him to be polite and respectful with others in general, and office boy in particular. I said to project manager that try to put yourself in someone else's shoes and behave in a way that shows you care for your team regardless of their status.

However, my efforts went in vain and he started harsher attitude with him as he thought that he was complaining about him with others team members. Time passed by and one day, I heard the news that tea boy had resigned and going back to his home country. I felt sorry for him as I can’t do anything for him. He had huge responsibilities and liabilities back home, but he was demotivated, stressed and felt being disrespected all the times. He couldn’t take it anymore and preferred to leave the job despite all his financial issues.

On his last day of work and just before departing, he told me that he wanted to share one of his dark secret. I could see his eyes that were full of rage that I would never have expected from him. I told him that, he can trust me to share his dark secret and then he burst into tears. He told me that, during last few months, he has served tea and drinks to the project manager with his spit in it, all the times. This was the least revenge; he could have imagined. He further told me that, if project manager was respectful to him, he would never spit in his tea like he never did for me or others who were good with him.

I tried to calm him down and told him that, it was a wrong act and he should haven’t done it. I told him that the best revenge is just moving on and getting over it. Don’t give someone the satisfaction of watching you suffer. As a friend I requested him, if such things happen in future; leave it to nature’s karma, instead of seeking revenge by yourself. I would suggest all readers; don’t be like this guy even if your boss really, really winds you up.

The morale of the story is that respectful behaviors aren’t limited to upper management. Anyone at any level in the organization can, and should, show respect for others. As someone said, “respect is foundation for trust, just in the same way that trust is foundation for love”. Be respectful to others and avoid spit in your tea.

Respect existence or expect resistance.

Written by (c): Mujahid Akhtar