Never, ever be rude to those "below" you.
I was taught this at a very young age and it is soooo true.
In our office, we have two assistants. We work great together. Anything I need, I get. Without them, I could not continue to teach and take care of my parents.
Of course, I also:
Put paper in the photocopier when I use it.
If I walk past a ringing phone in our main office and everybody is busy, I answer it.
Put my coffee cups in the dishwasher and run it when it's full, empty it when I walk into the faculty lounge and see it's done.
Say thanks and please and "would it be possible". I bake a cake or three for the end of semester sale every semester and make sure the secretaries get one, too.
Never, ever make special requests without making up for it...which includes coming in on a Saturday and doing a 5,000+ mailing which they couldn't do that week because they were processing ten diagnostics for my students which I forgot to turn in on time.
Without them, I just might be able to find my ass with both hands and that's about the level my teaching would be at, too.
Now, the weird thing of it is, my colleague who fails 75%+ of all freshmen can't get a thing out of the copy center. The server never seems to find his account, his password has always timed out at the worst possible time and his mailbox seems to always get his mail last. Whereas I get 17th and 18th century lecture halls, he gets concrete slab constructions from the 1970's with windows that don't open and funky air-conditioning. If any, at all.
What goes around, comes around. He treats the secretaries like not-too-bright children, stares down their blouses and snarls at them in front of students and other faculty.
He treats the rest of us like, dirt, too...but we are very careful to never be nasty back. He takes it out on our students and the support staff.
I've never had the pleasure, but other professors who have stood next to him in the men's room say he has a lot to compensate for...
