Some situations are viewed in black and white; right and wrong. Yet, many people think situations also have a grey area where solutions are not so easily discerned. This is about the choices people make, and the thought process they go through to arrive at decisions.
Consider: Submitted for Discussion
You’re at the office. As an early riser, you arrived before your colleagues, made the coffee, and settled in to work.
As your colleagues arrive, you take a break to grab some more coffee. You pour a cup of coffee and step aside to get some cream and sugar. One of the women from down the hall comes in with a large travel mug. She’s talking loudly on the phone while refilling her coffee mug. She drains the coffee pot, sets it down empty on the burner, and walks out.
As she leaves the room, a male colleague comes in with their coffee cup. He picks up the empty coffee pot, looks at you with your cup, and gives you a dirty look, slams the pot down, points to you, and walks out.
How do you think you would feel about each of these people? Do you think you would be more upset at the woman who drained the coffee pot and left it for someone else, or at the man who found the empty pot and expected you to make more?
Do you think that you would be comfortable with saying something to either or both of them? Do you think you would stay silent? Is this the kind of interpersonal rudeness you experience regularly at work? Do you think gender plays a role in some rude acts?
