Social Interactions 2

I like to apply the principles of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" at my job. It is easy enough and usually works out to be a positive experience. However, I had mainly only done this with customers up to this point. On Wednesday, I tried them out on one of my managers, Richard. Richard is a laid back type of manager, definitely not a gen-x manager, so I didn't worry about being too formal with him. It wasn't an incredibly exciting exchange, but I learned that he's quite the family man. Even those that he works with who aren't technically related to him have essentially become family to him.

I took the opportunity to talk to Soo, an assistant manager, also. His son is often with him at work and it almost becomes my second job to watch him sometimes. While he was packing up to leave I took some time to talk with him. We talked about his family, how long he has lived in the U.S., and I also asked about his cell phone. He owned a Blackberry like mine. Soo has also been working quite hard to make the store much more technology-based, so I would not hesitate to place him in the "early adopter" category of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. I have seen him transform the store in very little time making everything much more efficient.

Other interactions this week included a waitress at a Japanese restaurant, my friend David whom I had not seen in several months, and my brother-in-law.