Mini Manners 101: Can you say Thank you? Apparently not!

Ok people. This is first grade stuff. I don't know how your Mama raised you, but MY Mom raised me to say Thank You!

Let me back up.

I work in a renovated building on campus. I don't know what this building was like before the renovation, but I know that now it's a labrynith of halls, elevators that only go to two out of three floors and no helpful sinage AT ALL. Seriously. We have signs for what offices are down what hall, but no idea what department or organization those offices belong to.

So at least once a day someone stops by my office and asks how to get to so and so's office, the financial aid office, the advising center, etc. I tell them how to get where they're going and I resist the urge to charge a dollar for my services. (If I did this I would be well on my way to paying off a credit card right now.) And often the lost person will say thank you. Even if they aren't quite sure about my directions they say thanks.

But not the girl who came by today. She was lost, and I told her how to get where she was going. She seemed confused. I repeated my directions in my happy cheerful helpful secretary voice which I always use with strangers I encounter at work. She continued to look confused and just walked off.

Uh, you're welcome?

Now i'm not trying to be an asshole. But i'm not paid to give directions. It's something I do because i'm nice enough to help out if asked or if I see someone wandering around looking lost. I don't like reciting my How To Get To Financial Aid speech five times a day. Especially when I have to do it because the dumb fucks who renovated this place stopped caring when it came time to order signs. But I still do it. I do my best, and to my knowledge the people I direct get where they're going so is a Thanks too much to ask before you walk off? After all, you did interupt my work day, and sometimes i've been interupted while doing actual work, but with a smile I still told you how to find your advisor's office so squeak out a Thanks you miserable clod!

Thanks. Thank you. Not hard. Not hard at all people.

I won't even start on the topic of thank you notes. I will say that I went to two weddings last fall and over a year later have not seen a note from either couple and this makes me kinda pissed. Especially since one of those gifts was one that was hand made by me. But i'll stop.

So keep in mind as you go through life that you are owed very little. And when someone does do you a favor, no matter how small, you owe them a thanks. And if you skip this little courtesy then I hope that someday you end up in a glorified cube with a person talking to themselves on one side, a person using their speaker phone on the other and a rude git in your doorway wanting to know how to get somewhere just as you were about to leave for that off site three martini lunch you need really, really badly.

Not that i'm holding a grudge or anything.