A friend of mine used to remind me of this phrase a lot: “be a duck.” No she wasn’t telling me to go jump in a pond, she was giving me great advice when dealing with people.
In a work environment, you’re going to have all kinds of personalities. This can be a giant headache for some, or, if you let it, a beautiful learning experience. All the personality types that make up your company are what help to stretch, mold and grow into an even better business. Also in this environment, you will have times when everyone’s stressed, when there’s a hurry to get things done, and something that seems so small, like people’s feelings, get shoved aside. It happens everyday. Heck, it happens in places besides work (like your own home). This isn’t a good thing and it’s something we should strive to do better at individually, but what do we do when someone else is the one who causes us hurt? Be a duck.
Ducks posses an uropygial gland (yea…definitely had to look up the name of that gland) that produces a natural oil, which makes their feather’s waterproof. Because of this, water just rolls right off the duck’s back, as if it has no effect at all.
When in stressful situations (or people just being plain rude), we all could learn to be more like the duck. Let it roll off and not effect your day or mood. We all could learn to quack a little more often.
