Respectful Interaction - Personal Narrative - Assignment Example

One beautiful Friday morning, after having taken a shower, I felt frustrated to have found out when I stood on my weighing scale that I gained two pounds. Furthermore, when I was getting dressed, I could not find my favorite blouse. I readily concluded that I was having a lousy morning. I needed to salvage what was left of the rest of the day. I went to my usual salon in La Mesa, California. Upon my arrival at the salon, I looked for Lucy, my personal beautician, and to my dismay, she was absent for that day.

The salon assigned to me a hair stylist, so they called her, who was unfamiliar to me. On the outset, she was not smiling, she did not say anything to me, but simply directed me to a place near a corner. I am a very patient person, so I tried to make small talks by telling her how lousy my morning was. She still kept silent, so I asked for a magazine. She must not have heard me, because she continued to fuss over the curlers and different hair brush in the basket beside my chair. So I had to ask her again, and she ignored my request, but instead, told me bluntly to remove my jacket.

That was the ultimate for me. I went to that salon, precisely to cheer myself up, and there she was, trying her best to make my morning more miserable. I stood up and faced her, and told her if she was not in the mood to work, she should look for another beautician to replace her because I could not tolerate her behavior. When I am pushed beyond my limits, I have the tendency to become hostile, which I normally try to control, being aware of my characteristic. She answered me by saying that I might regret my decision, because she was the only expert in hair highlights.

I was taken aback, that she had the nerve to talk to a customer in that manner. She seemed oblivious about her rudeness. I looked for the manager at that instant, because I did not want to create a scene. I gathered, that this is the difference between an educated person and the person who has no breeding at all. The manager approached me with a smile plastered on her face, ready to apologize. I requester her to change the hair stylist, or I had to leave and never come back. I even threatened her that I will tell my other friends not to patronize her salon anymore.

She must have considered me to be quite influential, because aside from apologizing, she asked the hair stylist, whom she called Michelle, for a private reprimand. I could not help overhearing, when the manager demanded an explanation from Michelle, that receiving a complaint from a customer was not acceptable. To my surprise, I heard Michelle burst into tears. She told her manager that she was having a rough time in her home, her reasons however were not clear to me. After some time, the manager and Michelle went back to where I was waiting.

The manager explained that she had no one else to service me, and said, that when it comes to hair, Michelle was the best. The fact that I heard Michelle cry, was enough reason for me already to forgive her. Knowing that she was not her normal jovial self because of some mishaps that had happened in her life, could be understandable. My misfortunes of having gained weight, of having not found my favorite blouse, were nothing compared to what Michelle had been going through during my session in their salon.

As she washed my hair, she realized I had a listening ear. She opened up about her daughter who had not come home for several days. While she reported for work, she believed she should be out looking for her daughter. I am always willing to empathize, and it is believed that having a major problem can be very distracting at work. I tried to cheer her up, and told her to keep a positive outlook, because every problem has a solution. Since we were already having a friendly and respectful interaction, I dared tell her that it was unwise to bring the problems at work, because it affected her mood, and extended towards her treatment of her customers.

On the overall, I have learned from that experience, that when a person is disrespectful, which is not part of her nature, there has to be a compelling reason for a person to react rudely. Many times, what I can do, is to remind them, inasmuch as they could be displaying some disrespect, unconsciously. Communication is the best tool to ease up meaningless altercations. If you have offended someone, talk to him/her. Try to understand that person's perspective and why the comment was perceived to be offensive.

Speak up when people say offensive or hurtful things.  As Martin Luther King, Jr. once noted, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends".  Your silence might be interpreted as an agreement with the offending remarks (2011). I was not so focused on what Michelle was doing to my hair, because I got so engrossed with her own story, but to my delight, when she was finished with the highlights and styled my hair, I looked perfectly great, as if the disrespectful interaction between us, did not happen at all.

Work Cited: Campus and Student Life, 2011. The University of Chicago. Retrieved from: http://civility,uchicago.edu/community.shtml