Thank You
During important life events, such as weddings, births of children, birthdays and the like, it’s fairly natural and normal to say a lot of thank yous: you may be thanking people for their presence at the special event, for their help to make the event a success, or for a particularly useful or generous gift. Most people are somewhat inclined to express their thanks at these occasions.
But what about the more everyday favours and small gifts that we receive? Have we begun to take those for granted? I think so.
Working a a fairly large building with many doors and elevators, I’ve found that people take for granted that if you’re ahead of them, you will hold the door open for them. It’s perfectly fine for them to make this assumption, as really it doesn’t take anything to hold the door but I can’t deny that hearing a small ‘thank you’ expressed by the person who has walked through the door would not be remiss.
As a part time employee in the retail world, I find that customers can be slow to offer thanks too: it’s not uncommon for a cusotmer to try on a mountain of t-shirts after asking the employee to hunt about for various sizes and colours, and leave them all inside out and balled up in the corner of the fitting room floor and leave without a smile or an expression of appreciation for the employee’s time and aid.
What about those other things that we take for granted: the supportive friend, the parent who makes time for you when you want to talk, the good advice of your father? How often do you sit down and express gratitude for these things?
I’m not asking that one should suddenly begin thanking all and sundry for every little thing, but if somebody does something for you that you appreciate, say thank you. You might be surprised at how much those two words can make somebody’s day.
thanks, thank you, saying thank you
June 19th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Yeah, we live in a thankless world these days. How about the person that slows down and lets you into traffic, even though they don’t have to?
The only good thing is that, people are so used to ingratitude, you can become a hero simply by saying thank you.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:19 am
When I hold the door for someone and they don’t say thanks, I always say to them “You’re welcome”. Usually catches them off guard and they mumble thanks. I did it once and the lady actually said “I didn’t say thank you” and I said “I know, and that’s rude”. She grunted and stormed off into her bitter travels.