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A good, logical reason to be empathetic in all situations would be to help yourself. If you needlessly act negative toward another person, you will be more incl

by bryans 13y ago

A good, logical reason to be empathetic in all situations would be to help yourself. If you needlessly act negative toward another person, you will be more inclined to be negative about similar situations in the future. You are essentially training yourself to be negative which, I can assure you, bleeds into the rest of your life. It's important to recognize that even if you don't see value in being empathetic toward a particularly difficult individual, under different circumstances you are someone else's difficult individual. The paraphrased idiom "treat others as you want to be treated" has existed for thousands of years, for a lot of good reasons.

GhotiFish 13y ago
That first argument is unlikely to convince someone coming from a cold hard logic standpoint. Coming from a cold hard logic standpoint, that person is going to act in their best interest/companies best interest in all cases (or so the theory goes). I understand where you're coming from, but "Be nice to everyone to train yourself to be nice" isn't the optimal path from the companies perspective. Though you're second argument is effective in a global community kind of context.
- bryans 13y ago
  I agree that it is likely not a logical reason from the perspective of a company. I was simply providing a logical reason, in general. Though, an argument could also be made that being a nicer person is definitely a quality that most organizations would applaud, especially in a customer service position.
derekp7 13y ago
I've got a real-world example of that. Many years ago, I was an easily-angered driver. Once on the way to work, someone cut in front of me. I honked, and flipped off the driver as I passed. A few minutes later, pulling into work, that car was pulling into the same parking lot. Come to find out she was one of the directors at the company I worked for. I don't think I ever flipped off another car since then.

by bryans 13y ago

GhotiFish 13y ago

That first argument is unlikely to convince someone coming from a cold hard logic standpoint. Coming from a cold hard logic standpoint, that person is going to act in their best interest/companies best interest in all cases (or so the theory goes). I understand where you're coming from, but "Be nice to everyone to train yourself to be nice" isn't the optimal path from the companies perspective. Though you're second argument is effective in a global community kind of context.

bryans 13y ago
I agree that it is likely not a logical reason from the perspective of a company. I was simply providing a logical reason, in general. Though, an argument could also be made that being a nicer person is definitely a quality that most organizations would applaud, especially in a customer service position.

derekp7 13y ago

I've got a real-world example of that. Many years ago, I was an easily-angered driver. Once on the way to work, someone cut in front of me. I honked, and flipped off the driver as I passed. A few minutes later, pulling into work, that car was pulling into the same parking lot. Come to find out she was one of the directors at the company I worked for. I don't think I ever flipped off another car since then.