(USA) Today a friend called me while I was at work for help with a project that was related to my professional expertise. I didn’t think the question would take very long, but we ended up on the phone for over an hour. After I hung up I was kind of annoyed because my work (that my company was being paid for) was going very slow that day and this interruption meant I would have to stay late or not finish on time. I also realized that my tone of voice was not very patient with my friend towards the end of the conversation.
I thought about The Company Cube and also the owner of my company who is involved in the EoC. What should I do? I felt as if I needed to do something concrete for this person. “Share your time, expertise, and yourself” came into my head. I dediced to call my friend back and go through a concrete example of one of my work projects that might be helpful for the question.
She was very appreciative and our second phone call was shorter and seemed to help more. I also realized that sometimes I call her when I am in the office for professional expertise, while she is at work. So maybe I didn’t get everything done today, but we both learned something and kept our relationship strong for the next phone call!
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