Psychologists see something much deeper

Look at the next one you go to restaurant or cafeteria with family or friends. When the waiter approaches to remove the dishes to serve the next dish or because the food is over, someone from the table, spontaneously and instinctively, will bring the dishes or group them even before the waiter arrives to facilitate the task.

It is an almost imperceptible gesture for most, but according to the psychologist Francisco Tabernerothis common and spontaneous gesture can reveal much more information than it may seem. “That simple gesture of helping the waiter means several things,” says Tabernero.

Not only is good education

Beyond being a gesture of good education, the act of carrying out in an selfless and spontaneous way a collaborative action with the waiter shows two personality traits Main very well defined. Tabernero points out that, on the one hand, “to provide selfless help to the waiter denotes a feature of empathy”, which manifests “simply by altruism.”

This behavior can be considered a sign of what psychologists call prosocial attitude. That is, voluntary behaviors that benefit other people without seeking any direct compensation or recognition.

People who help collect the table at the end of a meal can be demonstrating internal capacities such as empathy, humility and social responsibility, which often do not look at first sight but have a significant weight, even in the professional environment.

Although The studies carried out On this type of behavior attribute a good part of the merit to the acquired habits and parental modeling, evidence is also collected that this type of behavior connects directly with an active understanding of others’ effort.

Assertiveness and social judgment deficit

Similarly, Tabernero emphasizes that this behavior can also demonstrate a type of passive type assertiveness, which “causes excessive fear of the negative evaluation of others. It is trait is observed in people who are excessively service with both their acquaintances and their strangers.”

According to the psychologist, “sometimes it is no longer just that altruistic gesture, but also a need to please and avoid being negatively evaluated. It is a need to ‘be well seen'”.

What all recruiters are looking for: team spirit

The expert also recognizes some prosocial behavior features represented in the proactive initiative of collaborating with the waiter to make his contribution to the work that occupies his attention at that time (collecting the table) is carried out With the greatest speed and efficiency possible, showing implication even when it is a foreign task.

This collaborative attitude is included among those that have been called Soft skills or soft skills that are every time they are taking A greater prominence in personnel recruitment.

A METAESTUDIO collected in the Journal of Applied Psychology He concluded that employees who They show prosocial behaviors They consistently improve productivity and reinforce the environment in work teams. The study collects data from more than 9,800 multiple sectors employees and reveals that these types of gestures generate less internal tensions and greater cohesion within the equipment, so they are highly valued profiles by companies

According to a published workby the Harvard Business School“The teams with the largest number of employees acting on their own initiative for the benefit of the group showed a 16% increase in productivity levels and 12% in internal cohesion indicators.”

However, Tabernero points out that, in this case, the action of collaborating to collect the table may be more linked to a previous condition of the person (being very restless or nervous) that leads to everything that happens around him must be done immediately, that not of a conscious and premeditated attitude of collaborating with the waiter or helping him to be more efficient in his work.

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