Greeting Your Colleagues with Courtesy

陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他刚好遇到美国同事Amy.

(Office ambience)

C：Hi Amy, how are you?

A：I am fine, thank you. And you?

C：有件事一直让我摸不着头脑。

A：About what?

C：我的新同事Carol很奇怪。每天早上，如果我不主动跟她打招呼的话，她肯定不会主动理我。

A：You mean she doesn't say, "Good Morning" unless you say it first?

C：没错。我昨天就没主动跟她说早安，结果不出所料，她真的没有主动理我。

A：Does she talk to you during the day?

C：谈工作的时候她倒是跟我讲话，就是从来不主动问好，或是打招呼。

A：She sounds rude. It must be difficult to work with someone like that.

C：是啊，跟她相处让我觉得挺不自在。

A：You need to talk to her. Otherwise things are going to get worse.

C：其实现在已经影响到我的工作了。我们天天在一起工作，但她却好像没我这个人似的。

A：An unfriendly co-worker is bad for morale and productivity.

C：我今天得找机会跟她谈谈。

******

陈豪下班后在车站遇到了Amy，两人一起等车。

A：Chen Hao, how did it go? Did you get a chance to talk to Carol today?

C：我专门等周围没人的时候去找了她。

A：That was good that you waited until no one else was present. You wouldn't want to talk about a sensitive issue in front of others.

C：我记得你以前提醒过我，这种敏感的事情最好是等周围没人的时候谈。

A：Tell me what happened? What did you say?

C：我问她为什么早上从不主动跟我打招呼，是不是我有什么地方得罪她了。

A：What did she say?

C：她显得很吃惊。她说自己总是第一个来上班，因此后来的应该主动跟先来的打招呼。我不主动向她问好，会让她觉得受了冷落。

A：You're kidding. That's the silliest thing I ever heard.

C：我当时也是这么想，但是没敢直说，只是说谁主动跟别人打招呼跟先来后到没关系。

A：You are absolutely right. No one should wait for anyone else to speak first, smile first or even make eye contact before acknowledging the other person.

C：对呀，如果真那样的话，办公室里干脆谁也别理谁算了。我希望这次谈话能有助于改善跟Carol的关系。

A：So how did you leave the situation?

C：她最后向我赔礼道歉，说没想到会让我觉得不自在。我想，明天早上上班就知道今天的谈话有没有效果了。

A：You were right to discuss it with her. You don't have to be best friends with all the people you work with, but you should treat each one of them with courtesy and respect.

C：是啊，有的时候，一句“早上好”就能给一天带来一个好的开端。