No Body is Special - We are the Same

It was 1:30 PM. I just finished my lunch at the hotel cafeteria and brought my plates and glass to the dishwashing area. I put my glass and plates together with bunch of dirty glasses and plates. I took them and put on the dishwashing machine and turned it on. My colleague who worked as the canteen staff stared at me behind my back and smiled. “Thank you very much for doing it, most of the people who work here would not care the way you do”. I smiled and said that I am here as an employee and whatever belongs to this hotel should be treated as they are mine.

He then starting sharing how he was amazed to see me putting those glasses and plates on the dishwashing machine even though it was not my job to do it. He started sharing his feeling about working at this hotel. “I was assigned to work here as a canteen staff only to clean the canteen, wash the dishes and do some of the works for canteen. But since the first time I got here, I got more responsibilities which I did not expect before, I had to prepare for breakfast, lunch, dinner, prepare food, salad and so on. It is okay for me. But sometimes I do not understand with people who work here. They clean the rooms for guest, vacuum the rooms, serve food for the guests and so on. But when they come to canteen, they acted like they are the boss or they are the GOD. They would ask me to take plates for them, food, and so on like I am nothing for them, like they are better than me. As far as I know we work here as employee, we are equal, and my boss here is Mr. Axel and not them. It sometimes makes me sad, disappointed and angry at the same time. They think that just because they provide service for the guests, they can treat me like I am no body.”

“But since the first time I saw you working here as supervisor, I paid attention that you would always take the dirty plates and glasses and put them on the dishwashing machine and turned it on before you left for your shift. Thank you very much for doing that. I wish people would do the same like you always do whenever you finish eating”. 

I stood and listened to him with an empathy and made a conversation with him.

I understood his feelings. I wish I could do more for him besides listening and sharing my perspective. Since he talked about his feelings, he made me realize that a small act of kindness could bring smile to other people. We just need to keep practicing kindness without hoping something in return. And it feels good when we do something for other people.

What I am trying to say is; as a human, we sometimes do not realize that other people also have feelings. They also want to be treated nicely, but we tend to ignore that. If only we would always put our situation in their shoes, I think we would be willing to do something for those people, not because we are better than them, but because we had been in their situation. We become more aware if we have been through what others had been through.