Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Giving others the benefit of doubt

I had a colleague whom many of us found very irritating. Out of her other habits, one thing affected me most because I sat next to her cubicle. Her desk phone rang very loud. And it seemed that it rang only when she was away from her desk. And it seemed that she purposefully got very late in reaching back to pick it up. It continued that way, until one day I thought I would do something about it. So I went to her desk, picked up the phone, told the caller that she was away and she can call back in 10 minutes, and then I tried to “fix” the phone by lowering its ringing volume. But I was surprised to find that there was no option to lower the volume! When she came back, I asked her about it and she replied that she herself was sad that there was no option to lower the volume! I felt ashamed of my imagination. And on that day, I learnt a lesson: we should give benefit of doubt to others. And we should not judge easily, as the information with us may not be sufficient for the conclusion.

- Rahul

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