Last Wednesday, I was sitting in my hotel room, pounding at my laptop as I tried to finish up the last bit of work I had to do for today, when housekeeping banged on the door.
This was probably the third time she had come by in the last hour and I was growing annoyed by the minute.   All I could think was, ‘I need to get this work done before I leave this hotel and catch a flight out of here.’  We had an event we were planning for the next week and I wanted to get everything squared away.
Clearly, it was almost 2 hours past the time I was supposed to check out, but seeing as though I had left my office keys in LA, staying in the room for another hour or two seemed like the best option.
The housekeepr pounded again, and I yelled ‘I’ll be out in a minute!!’
Now, I’m really pissed, because every time she knocks, my concentration is thrown way off.
But suddenly, the strangest thing happened.
For a minute I took my focus off of the work I had to do, and started thinking about the woman outside the door.
What does she look like? I wondered randomly…
Does she have kids? Grandkids?
Is she trying to get home to her family?
Am I holding her up?
OMG!!!
I jumped up and frantically scanned my hotel room and it was a complete mess from the day before. Clothes were thrown everywhere. I calculated that it would take me about a good 20-30 minutes to pack up everything and to double over the room twice to make sure I didn’t forget anything.
I ran to the door and opened it, and sure enough, the housekeeper, a nice little lady who was clearly annoyed,  was leaning on the wall across from my door patiently waiting.
‘I am sooooo sorry!!’ I said to her.  ‘Can you give me a few minutes to pack up everything?’ I asked.
‘Okay!’ she said but I could tell by the look of her face that I was the very last room she would probably have to clean before she could go home and I immediately felt bad.
I put myself in her shoes and felt terrible.
I ran back in the room and started throwing everything into my suitcase, forget folding and organizing, I can do that later.
I found some cash, in the plight of my 5-minute clean up and ran back to the door, “I will be out in 5 minutes!!! I promise you!’ I said while handing her the cash. I was hoping I’d at least make up a little for her time that I had wasted.
Once I left the room, I thanked her for everything.  By then, another housekeeper had joined her who told me to take my time and check the room again so that I wouldn’t forget anything.
They both seemed pretty nice and comforted by my understanding and willingness to work with them.
15 minutes later, I found myself in the lobby, where there ended up being free Wi-Fi, and I spent the rest of the evening there finishing up my work.
I find a lesson in everything, and that day I realized that it’s not always about you or what you got going on at the moment. Sometimes we do have to take other people into consideration. You never know what they may be going through at the moment, their situation etc. I’ve seen numerous people who have given customer service reps attitudes for problems that rep didn’t create but they have to blame someone, and ‘you rep the company, so I’m blaming you!’
I read an article recently, and it said that entrepreneurs are normally type-A people who are long on vision, and short on empathy for others:

It’s not that entrepreneurs are bad apples; it’s simply that when they are focused on taking care of business, they tend to plow through anyone and anything that stands in their way, without consideration for anyone’s feelings.

I think that basically sums up what happened in that hotel room, and numerous incidents that I’ve encountered.
There was no reason for me to be mad at the housekeeper and give her attitude. She was just doing her job!
We are so connected through all of these different social networks, apps and online communities, but in a way we are still very much disconnected, especially in real life. It’s easy to become angry from someone’s actions before even considering what they may be feeling or why they may have acted in a way that made us feel uncomfortable, mad or sad.
In being more aware of this, I now hope to do better.
And now, I have a new resolution.
Always practice empathy. Always take the time out to think about how someone else may be feeling and why they may be feeling that way, and what you can do to help make things better.
Empathy can save friendships. It can save relationships. It can save your business, and most importantly, it can even save someone’s life.
Have you ever had a situation where you felt as though you could have handled it better to change the outcome? Or wish you had the opportunity to talk to someone to understand where they were coming from and vice versa?

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