Respect

After spending 8 months in the world of marketing, I’ve changed in ways I never would have predicted going into my work term. Some good, some bad. The best of which is the realization that I don’t hate the real world that much, and I could function in a business setting and be happy for several years – if not for the rest of my life.

Needless to say, my first week at school for this year was an interesting experience. First of all, the sheer amount of people! Now I’ve been in the mad rushes for food at exactly 12pm downtown Toronto, as you are pushed and pulled by crowds of people eager to escape the confines of a desk for the blessed lunch hour. However, that doesn’t compare to the hordes of people milling around on campus trying to weave their way to their next class – all while trying to avoid the traffic jams in the MC. For one, they dress differently. You’ll see the hoodies and the ripped jeans and casualness that you will not find in a downtown office – even when said office is a casual environment. It may have been a by-product of marketing, but while people in the office would still be in jeans and t-shirts, they always managed to look fabulous and stylish at the same time. Whereas in university, ‘casual’ wear here is much more casual than it was in the office – definitely less designer wear!

While I’m enjoying my classes so far and meeting people I haven’t seen for months, there was one thing that stood out the most about university vs. the workplace – respect.

Technology in the last decade has evolved so much, now we literally have internet at our finger tips at any point in time. No one can dispute how it has changed our society. One thing that it is changing? How we behave in society.

I’m just thinking of the number of times that I’ve seen people walking around with headphones, and not bothering to take them out when having a conversation with people. What about when you are having a conversation – isn’t it amazing how the beep or vibrate of a text message can immediately pull a person’s attention away from what you thought was a good conversation to check their messages? Imagine the days when cell phones didn’t exist.

How about in class? People surfing on their phones, texting during class all the time, not paying attention to the professor. The ring of a cell phone in class doesn’t make a professor blink anymore, yet there was a day and time when it would have stopped a prof in their tracks to re-iterate the no cell phones policy.

Call me old fashioned, but it seems kind of rude to me. Like when students take every pause in the lecture to start talking loudly with no regard for the lesson at hand, or start packing up while the professor is still talking (no hint of dismissal).

I knew I was getting older =P Some of this behavior would not be tolerated in the business world, that’s for sure. It just seems…rude. It lacks respect. Don’t get me wrong, I can be accused of doing these things as well. But now that I’ve noticed it, I think I’m going to make more of an effort to listen to you when you speak without my headphones in, ignore text msgs until we’ve finished conversing, or, *gasp*, wait till the professor is ready to dismiss us before packing up and chatting. How the world has changed me…

- S