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Treat Others With Dignity and Respect

Treat Others With Dignity and Respect
By Jimmy Warden
New York Area Vice President

I would like to first take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a very happy and healthy New Year! I wish you and your family all the happiness the holidays will bring.

When we hear the initials D&R, the first thing that probably comes to mind is drops and relays, especially during peak season. With package volume extremely high, drops and relays usually are greatly impacted. Most often, we become so tied up in our jobs that we fail to remember we are a people business.

Yes, machinery has taken over many of the jobs previously performed by human resources, but we must not forget it still is people who get the job completed and satisfy our customers’ expectations. It’s for this reason that when I hear the acronym D&R, I think of dignity and respect.

So often, I hear members of management complain their bosses don’t treat them with dignity and respect. Whether they do or don’t does not give us the right to then also treat our subordinates improperly. Regardless of the levels of those involved, all people want to be treated with dignity and respect.

We all should look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, “Do I treat others the way I want to be treated?” Yelling and barking out commands accomplishes nothing. You strip a person of their dignity, then expect them to achieve high results. How can you expect that person to give you 100% of their commitment to success?

Respect is something that must be earned and not forced on someone. It’s not something enforceable or an entitlement based on your title, grade or level. People wonder why their job is so difficult where others performing the same job seem to have it much easier.

Hint: Maybe start appreciating your staff for what they can contribute or accomplish as part of a solution and not always say they are part of the problem! We need accountability, but there is a proper way to administer it.

If we don’t respect our subordinates, how can we expect our superiors to respect us? You are just as wrong as they are. The only difference is, besides not earning the respect of your subordinates, you’ve also been stripped of your dignity by your boss. You lose on both ends. Then those people wonder why they take the job home with them.

The great American poet Maya Angelou wrote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel!” Isn’t that what engagement is all about?

Dignity and respect makes good business sense. Happy holidays!