A few people around me who has been in contact with me would know that I am so very excited about the NIE training. I cannot wait to start on the textbooks, tutorials and group discussions to widen my perspective and gain insights into the different opinions that other people may have.
Perhaps I am too excited that I failed to consider other people's positions. FOr example, take the HR personnel whom I have been corresponding with. She goes to work everyday handling similar matters related to recruitment. It may have become so routine that she finds it boring and meaningless. Afterall, there are just so many protocols to follow. One can barely make a difference unless you are somewhere near the top of the corporate ladder. With this in mind, I should not expect her responses to indicate any trace of excitement of joy in corresponding with me. Her replies are cold and factual, standard and plain, and straight to the point.
From another point of view, her job is to ensure that emails and questions are answered in the fastest time possible with the least amount of resources. Well, she has achieved that goal.
It affects me very much whenever I receive such emails. I come from a field of study where we believe in making every contact opportunity a memorable and joyous one. Call it an occupational hazard, but I think that every customer who is polite and nice to you deserves the same treatment in reciprocation too. (Of course, for those nasty customers, we still have to maintain a polite front but perhaps we would not go the extra mile for them...haha....)
Hmmmmm......or am I just over-sensitive and reading too much into such a simple incident?
1 comment:
It's not you, I think it's a Singaporean thing. I do get some sort of a culture shock whenever I return home, when replies are brief or just non-existent. Even in some government departments, where they often have to deal with overseas business and PR correspondence, you'll get the same thing. I have seen the transformation of the Singaporeans here, when they first came, the manner in which their e-mails were written were simply appalling.
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