Merci beaucoup- for being you!

If you are waiting for a "Jay Shetty" kinda write up given the motivational-wisdom title of my first post for my blog Whataboutery, then I will respectfully ask you to look at other content, because this post of mine was simply to share something beautiful I experienced a fortnight ago on the last day of my work. We as argumentative Indians love to critique and that is why perhaps  criticism comes to us quite naturally and easily than appreciation (ahem my 8 yr old daughter would fiercely nod at this even as she would allege that her Amma suffers from this as well!). And yet when one receives appreciation, we (most Indians) are flummoxed and fumble our way out with a sheepish smile that says "I didn't know you thought that way or "Aww...really!" So when I stumbled upon my official farewell with such open declarations of appreciation, suffice to say I am glad it happened and it got me thinking. 30 minutes of my farewell was all I needed to understand that sometimes your presence may mean so much to people and it may have nothing to do with your work, it may simply be-about being you. I hope this does not confuse people, what I mean is that during my official farewell at work my co-workers a wonderful team of young (mostly) women and (some) men, shared some amazing words of what I meant to them as a co-worker! 

In those 30 minutes, realization dawned on me that three years is a long time to forge great friendships and understand that even as each one of us goes through the regular rigmarole of work, we teach and learn from each other as co-workers constantly. It got me thinking, why did it take my co-workers so long to share their feelings about how they saw me- as a co-worker or friend, honestly I can be quite something to deal with- because of my straight talking-no bull shitting kind of way of being- I am quite simply - a take it / leave it kind of an individual- therefore not everyone's cuppa kaapi! And that could most likely be the reason why it was only on the last day that I received amazing words of appreciation on what my presence meant for different individuals at my workplace. What really struck me was that most of it was coming from people's hearts and genuinely felt like it mattered that I will not longer be around. From gifts to heartfelt notes to emails from colleagues, it was emotional for me to say the least to listen and read what people had to say about my time there. 

This also got me thinking, what if we did something like this more often, make people feel good about what they do, how they encourage us and how they inspire us. What if work-spaces offered such positive vibes by building people up and creating room to compliment a co-worker to help them be better colleagues- even friends? Wouldn't that be the ideal way to solving a lot of unhealthy team dynamics and perhaps even make it a productive way to work. I am not saying we need to start a complimenting club of sorts at the workplace, appreciation can go a long way in building a great work environment. 

The least we should be able to say to our colleagues is thank them for being them!