Friends And Co Workers example essay topic

I was born an army brat in Fulda, Germany, March 16, 1980. Throughout my life and travels I have had to learn how to communicate with many different types of people. There have been many turning points in my life that have completely changed my perception on how I should behave in difficult or unusual circumstances. On a regular basis I deal with my family, friends and co-workers.

With every new year comes new experiences and lessons learned. My family and I have been through some very difficult situations, and each time have become closer and more loving towards one another. Growing up in the military was great, and because we never stayed in one place longer than three years, we became very close. My sister and I learned very early that the Army was not only my dad's job, but ours as well. We were always helping plan the next picnic or function. I had to learn early on how to introduce myself to adults, which in return made me more confident.

My parents stressed the importance of our family working together as a team. There was rarely a question about what our responsibilities were. If there was something we felt was unfair, our parents allowed us to talk about it with them. If we produced a valid argument they sometimes changed the responsibilities accordingly. I praise my parents for teaching us good communication skills.

It wasn't until I started school that I realized not everyone had been raised like myself. There are few people that were raised to understand how good communication occurs. Even through my teen years, I found that teachers did not always have the best communication skills. I began to start paying closer attention to how different people reacted to the same situation. I guess you could call me a people watcher. Something that even I'm at fault of is a lack of proper listening skills.

Someone is always talking over someone else. When I was sixteen I got into a serious car accident. I spent a month in the hospital and received many cards, balloons and stuffed animals. It seemed no one really knew me. The messages in the cards were always religious verses or otherwise, when I had stopped going to church three years previous.

The point is that almost all of these people knew me as a close friend or family. There were a select few cards that actually comforted me, and those were mainly words from the heart. While this may seem stuffy and pretentious. I sincerely appreciated all the support, I just felt as if no one else bother to pay that close of attention. Once I left the hospital I was ready to go back to school. I went to school the next day.

This is about the time I decided who I really thought of as my friends. I tried to always have a smile on my face at school. I must admit for a while there I had a quite a bit of friends. Once I got in my car accident, it seemed as though people were acting different around me. The day I got back to school, as I was huffing up the wheelchair ramp, a guy stopped me and asked how I was. When I said I was doing fine, he responded with "It doesn't look that bad, everyone was acting like you almost died".

Well, to tell you the truth, I think it was exactly that point at which I became bitter. I'm not sure if I felt that they just couldn't understand, or that for some reason I was making to big of a deal about it. This whole time period was a huge lack of communication. I was yelling at my parents and I always had a scowl on my face. I withdrew from activities at school, and hung out with all my friends that were already out of school. It seemed as though my blood was continuously boiling.

About six months after the accident I asked my mom if I could go see a counselor. My first experience with a counselor was an interesting one. I was 16 years old and I looking face to face with my grandfather age therapist. How was I supposed to tell this guy everything that was going on?

Well, lucky for me I had worked as a peer counselor in high school and realized that this man has probably experienced twenty of my life times. We talked through about three sessions before I had a clear perception of what was going on. My counselor diagnosed me with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. About the time I gained an understanding of what PTS was, I also found that my migraines were being caused by a jaw joint disorder called TMJ. Once I got a handle on my anger and my headaches I was back out to tackle the world. My senior year I got a full time job seeing as I only had one class.

The first period in room 1, I earned my last. 5 credit to graduate. Then I drove into Anchorage and worked an 8 hr shift. My contact with the workforce started at sixteen, but I believe it really developed once I started working full time.

When you work with somebody side by side for forty hours every week they become like family, whether you want to or not. When I first worked in an office it totally shocked me. First all because I never thought I'd be sitting in a desk, let alone doing customer service. I remember when I was younger my mother telling me to "fake it" when I was in a situation I didn't like. Well, that's how I handled customer service. I put on a smile no matter what was going on outside of that customer.

I found this to be one of my best learning experiences ever. I realized that it wasn't necessary to fake it; all you have to do is realize that the customer has nothing to do with our problems. Therefore, the customer should not bear any of the responsibility. Man, if only I could market that, I'd make a bundle.

I believe the true teacher in how to properly perform customer service is to experience bad service. As far as my co-workers, that has been interesting. I went from working with and being friends with all guys to working forty hours a week in a six woman set of offices. I work directly with a girl close to my age.

She is definitely an entertaining person, but it was difficult learning to deal with her. She is the kind of person to get defensive at everything you do and say. It's as though everything is a personal attack. On top of that she was pretty ruthless and mean. Honestly I would say it was about a year before we became friends and learned to love each other's quirks.

I still have the greatest time watching others deal with her. After all this time, I think that the people you meet could possible be the greatest thing about work. Without these people in my life I'm not sure I would have many people that I call friends. Once you join the real world it's moving way to fast to meet new people.

No matter where you " re at, good communication skills are a blessing. When you can clearly get your message across, people are more likely to feel relaxed and comfortable around you. In my time so far, I have truly enjoyed learning to communicate with different people. Never in my life could I have imagined dodging conflict as much as I do now. When I was younger, I was always defending something or somebody. As I've gotten older I began to understand that some people are set into their ways.

There are definitely people are there that I am not able or willing to change. For example, though it took sometime, my co-worker and I became good friends. If I hadn't had met her I would still try to argue with someone like her. Since I have, I know the proper way to deal with it is to allow them to recognize they " re overreacting. Honestly, if this doesn't work, the leave them alone / cool down, always does. I strive to learn new skills and new personality types throughout my days.

I believe that most conflict stems from bad communication. If more people would just take a second and think about what they want to say, the world would be a better place.