“COURTESY”

Courtesy is the act of being polite. To us Christians, it means more than that. It means charity which is based on respect for other people.  Because we love and respect people, we apply courtesy. Courtesy is reflected in details with the arbitral smile, personal neatness etc. Without charity, courtesy makes no sense.

Referencing the Opusdei.org page,” Polite manners provide something essential for living in society, teaching us to be human and civil with others. Courtesy, cordiality, politeness are “little sisters” of other and greater virtues. But their particular features reside in the fact that without them our interactions with others would become unpleasant. Moreover, a coarse and discourteous person could hardly live up to the requirements of charity.”

 Courteous persons are seen as people who are gentle, respectful and courtly mannered. They have good mannerism and would always say “please” when they want something to be done for them, they will say” thank you” when the job is done and they will say “excuse me” when they bump into someone or want something out of the way.

 We witness bad behavior mostly in the work place where people feel that being courteous does not really matter, they feel that a workplace is a public place and that one should not really be courteous every time. To them what matters is your performance and deliverables but l disagree with that opinion. I personally believe that one should be good mannered and polite everywhere, at home, in the market place, in public and also in the workplace.

 I agree that sometimes, people don’t intend to be rude or discourteous but are caught in that act while trying to be efficient and thus forget to be polite. If you ask me courtesy and respect towards colleagues and others should be a standard behaviours in every workplace irrespective of the position, role or even the circumstances. In fact, it should be one of the core values of every organization, it is all about etiquette.  Being cordial enough to greet people when you enter an office no matter your status or rank in the office. Saying “hello “when you meet someone in the elevator, saying ‘good ‘bye” when leaving the office and also saying “good night” when you are retiring to bed in your home.

 Being cordial enough to hold doors for people when going through an entrance, saying “sorry” when we realise that we have made a mistake either consciously or unconsciously or out of tiredness or absent – mindedness. Also trying to respect people’s privacy, l mean, their space by not barging into their offices or homes without knocking on the door and waiting to be asked to come in.

 Being courteous also requires one not to interrupt a speaker while at meetings or in a conference. Always wait for question time or indicate your intention to speak by raising your hand and waiting to be called to speak. These are little things that people over look, which are signs of bad mannerism and can be seen as being disrespectful.

 In the first paragraph, l mentioned personal neatness as part of being courteous, yes, being untidy and unkept can send a wrong message that you don’t really care about how you look or how your look affects the image of your organization. Don’t forget that you are an ambassador of your organization hence your appearance goes a long way in branding your profession and your organization in the eyes of the world. Let us be mindful of that and also remember that being polite or courteous or neat or well behaved or well mannered is synonymous to being charitable.