The demise of "Thank You" (a rant)

Anytime, sir.

 

Starbucks workers are not allowed to say "You're welcome". EVER.

I've encountered most of the scenarios people have posted here. Something else I notice: no one thanks athletes for signing autographs, or ball-girls who give them baseballs, etc.

 

I'm an over thanker. I thank everybody. I thank the bus driver when I get off the bus. :-\

 

That's where I am.

Too much.

 

I thank people a lot, too.

I'm really big on opening doors for people. I go out of my way to do it. I'm in Alabama, which should be a center of friendly appreciation, but I probably get thanked 35% of the time. It's just a thank-you! Nobody's asking for money, phone numbers, children.

Well, FuerteJ might be asking for numbers. Not me.

 

One of the advice/etiquette columnists had a thing the other day on all this, don't remember which, although it was one of the biggies, respectable.

I was surprised that the rule of thumb now is that you don't have to send a thank you note if you were given the gift in person and expressed your gratitude at the time. That's what they said at least.

Obviously, that doesn't happen at weddings, hence thank you notes.

The new gray area, to me -- although this kind of gift-giving thing doesn't come up much for me -- is the appropriateness of a sincere e-mail as opposed to snail mail.

 

I'm not sure if it's an excuse or not, but I guess if you ask most people why they don't say "thank you" or "please" I'm sure what you'd be told is "I'm in a hurry."
The pace of life is so much faster these days. We all have to much more to do and less time to do it and we all probably have something that had to be done 15 minutes ago.
It only takes a second or two to be polite, but I guess some people feel as if that's time they simply don't have.
My other pet peeve is when you accidentally bump into somebody and say "excuse me" or "I'm sorry." Why can't the person simply accept my appology (assuming they're not hurt or I didn't spill anything on them of course)?
Just say "Its all right." or something like that.

 

I love sincere e-mails, but then I'm of the generation that I rarely sends snail mail anyway. I will appreciate a sincere e-mail much more than a thank-you note that's just signed by the sender.

 

When my little brother was four, he used to go across the street to this old lady's house. She would always give him cookies. My mom sat him down and explained that is was rude to show up at an old lady's house and ask for cookies.

So my brother heads over there and says, "My mom said I can't ask you for cookies anymore, so you'd better just give me some."

 

Maybe it's the area I live in, or maybe I've been lucky, but I get Thanks You's at the store all the time. The only worse thing a person can do than not saying thank you is saying YOU'RE WELCOME sarcastically to the person that didn't say thank you. That joke wasn't funny 15 years ago.

What's the distance limit for holding the door for someone? If I go to the gym and there's a guy behind me, I'll hold the door if he's within 25, 30 feet, but I'll go on ahead inside if he's 30 feet away and doesn't do the "fake run to seem like he's trying to take me up on my holding-the-door-for-him offer."

Then again, sometimes for fun when my wife and I are out shopping and she's behind me I'll open the door just wide enough for me to go through, sneak inside and leave her high and dry. Ha ha, wifey.

 

I used to just go into the kitchen and eat the cookies. To this day, I buy a pack of Archway cookies once in a while and reminisce.

 

Sometimes when I'm leaving the bar, someone will hold open the door, and I just use the other one.

They love that.