ANST - Taking the Ideals of the SCA Home

[iainmacc at juno.com]

On Sat, 14 Oct 2000 10:18:27 -0500 "Lou  Burgin" <AMBERLEA at peoplepc.com>
writes:
> I have always taught my 
> children
> (both by blood and in the household) that you must maintain a 
> certain
> behavior, and you do not accept anything less.  If you are not 
> willing to
> "give" it then you cannot expect to "get" it, but you also do not 
> have to
> accept bad behavior just because it is the norm.  I do not use bad 
> language
> and I let it be known that I will not tolerate it's use around me.  
> I am not
> shy about telling anyone that.  This can be delicate in the 
> workplace, but
> can be done and I feel it is important to do it.  Even the boss 
> should be
> expected to mantain a certain decorum if politely asked.  But you 
>

	Darling Sister,

	I suppose I could concede the point, but partly it depends on your work
environment. 

	The above could be expected to work if you saw the same people all day,
every day. At least, most times. I wouldn't hold out much hope for the
guy who works on a construction crew.
	Nor am I in much of a position to effect change. I am all over the
eastern half of the metroplex every day. I see my "coworkers" for about
an hour once a week, and if I see a customer a dozen times in a single
year, I have a serious problem.
	You don't get anywhere by being hardnosed with your customers. I try to
maintain a certain personal standard, and try to spread my philosophy to
those I am around regularly. If a customer is rude to me, I don't try to
enforce standards of courtesy on him/her, that will accomplish nothing
except to lose the customer. Instead, I let my boss know that I would
prefer not to go back there, and why.

	As I said at first, I make changes where I can. But I don't let my day
be ruined by the knowledge that there are many out there with no interest
in changing, and who will resent the attempt.

	It's kind of like a mass melee. If you can't possibly gain a complete
victory, you can at least concentrate on not being defeated.

								Iain
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