How many of us have encountered a situation in which we perceived other than .
what was reality? Perceptions vary from person to person. Different people perceive things different about the same situation. Thoreau states, "The perception of beauty is a moral test". I strongly believe this is true. What I see might not be what you see. I will admit that in more that one occasion, I perceived what I thought or believed to be true, but was far from reality. When perception comes into play, I must admit that I tend to make assumptions or generalizations about certain situations. Particularly in my field of work. There is one instance in particular, in which my perception of a certain situation, was completely different to reality. .
While employed at Verizon Telecommunications, I encountered a very uncomfortable situation with a particular customer. This customer was calling from Florida. Many of the Florida customers that call our center, are either Cubans or Puerto Ricans. The vast majority of Cubans have a very strong and projected voice that when speaking, it is automatically perceived that they are screaming, but in reality are not. When I first started working for Verizon I was unaware of this. I had heard from other employees that they disliked handling calls from Florida. I never really paid much attention to this until I received my first Florida call. This customer was Cuban and indeed sounded to be extremely upset. He was talking very fast and extremely loud which made it more difficult to understand what he was saying. Immediately, I began to make assumptions and sensed him to be mad by the way he came across. I could not comprehend the reason why this particular customer was extremely angry at me.
