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Where have they gone? Disappeared, in the main at least. Why are we so angry, so impatient and why do we ignore even the most common of courtesies, why can’t we muster up a simple please or thank you?
Working in customer service you realise just how we have lost our way, please and thank you is becoming a rarity, perhaps most disappointing is how people in such industries are looked down on, servitude not being worthy of praise according to some.
Our fast paced, hectic lifestyles are blamed for this but there can be no excuse for treating each other with disrespect.
And the simple fact is if you treat someone with respect, whether you are a customer or employer, you get a better performance or service.
In person there is no excuse for a lack of manners but for some, hiding behind a keyboard, they can do away with manners and resort to personal attacks and flame throwing.
Modern technology has empowered us but also given some folk a forum to air their views, no matter how hurtful or unflattering.
In today’s favourite forms of communication, instant messaging, be it SMS texts, Facebook chat, MSN or even the now dated email, there is doesn’t seem to be room for the humble please or thank you.
In such technology, even a response isn’t guaranteed.
Imagine sitting across from someone and ignoring him or her?
This is in effect what we are doing when we ignore text messages, emails and the like. Just because the form of communication is different, doesn’t mean we should excuse the need for a response let alone manners, but too many of us are ignoring such common courtesies.
According to a recent study, social networking sites risk “infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity”
I would also add that new forms of communication have further eroded our manners and courtesies.
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Comments
I Agree 100% that the common
I Agree 100% that the common courtesy of Manners and being Polite has gone to &*^%
I work in the customer service industry for a Tech Firm (a highly acclaimed one at that) and we get our fair share of heck from people just because they think they can treat us that way.
I am 26 - i was bought up with Please and Thank you's, and I always make sure that i am polite as possible and to be as helpful as i can in my job, but its seriously wasted on some people who are obviously just out to make someones day a little less pleasant.
It is unbelievable how many kids (and some 18-20s) don't use the simple Please and Thank You. Its all "I want". Even a simple "cheers" is acceptable in my eyes as a thank you.
People have also started to Bark orders in place of questions. While in the US - people are generally very polite with their please and thank you - even if they are having a go at you and sinking their teeth in, they will always say "Thank You" at the end of a call, or in person even if the issue isn't resolved in their favor, in NZ - your lucky if you get a thank you in Any out come.
Simply appalling.
Although the likes of certain Communications Monopoly companies here have given customer service a bad name - their help desk staff are rude, and often less than helpful and for many English is a distant second language. I have never received a Please or Thank You other than on recorded messages. They should be ashamed of themselves, not just the operators either.
Why would anyone say please
Why would anyone say please and thank you when their pointy elbows and short sharp commands will get them just as far? Society as a whole encourages rude thugs by overlooking early anti-social behaviour - "let them be - boys will be boys". If they're girls we comment "oh, that's just teenagers, they'll grow out of it". But they don't. And then they become adults and their aggressiveness and violence is encouraged yet again. It's a well-documented fact, for example, that women choose aggressive, forceful, loud men over the quiet, friendly, polite ones. Why? They're still ruled by Neanderthal instincts. Oh, well, I'm getting carried away. Thank you for reading.
PS. Please read Lynne Truss - Talk to the Hand. It's exactly about this issue.
Our and our decendents'
Our and our decendents' manners and courtesies will be greatly improved if we atart addressing others respectfully as Mr/Nrs/Ms, Uncle and Auntie, Grandpa or Grandma in public, etc.
Gotta love customer service-
Gotta love customer service- have been there and you really do feel like a second class citizen a lot of the time, simply for going out of your way to help another human being.
And when you recive texts going "Where ru? Haven't sn u in ages? Ru ignorin me?" Let's see- did you try Picking Up The Phone and Dialing? I think new technologies are also an excuse not to try as hard.
THANKS for bringing this up, very interesting! :)
Can we do anything
Can we do anything anymore...Is society really just gotten this way...I mean I really do love all the technology and I think it's really doing a good start, but does that mean we have to lose our common reasoning to this generation of technology, arn't we just now becomming the age of robots ourselves and we have to input everything and go to classes to get graded on "How to Be nice"...