Is it just me or are people getting more and more rude these days? I had a professor in college who once remarked, “There is no excuse for bad manners.” She was very wise. I’m not sure I get why people can’t take an extra few seconds to hold a door, say thank you or please, or even write a salutation in an email.

If your life is so hectic that you can’t answer another person’s inquiry by starting out with, “Hi Dawn” and ending with your name, then you need to reexamine yourself. For those dealing with customers—shame on you double time! That’s just serious bad customer service. Don’t treat me like I’m a pest invading your all-important day. And for everyone else—I’m a human being, not your servant. Talk to me with just a wee bit of respect. All I’m asking is for a salutation, a couple of extra words in your communications—not a 20-minute novel. (For those of you in my family or close circle of friends—you are off the hook. I’ll call you on it if I think you need a slap.)

I’m writing about this because in this age of texting and our fast-paced society, the rudeness bar is getting raised higher and higher. I’m writing this because both clients I work for and people in companies whom I’ve hired are displaying poor communication skills.

But before I launch into who is losing in this department (Wilgus, Sears, Home Depot), let me just say that lately the kids checking my groceries in the Giant near my house have been very friendly, professional, and polite. Kudos to them and their managers for taking that extra effort to be pleasant to their customers (and what a stinky job that is).

That was the good. Now the bad and ugly. This morning I received an email response to two questions I sent yesterday from our Wilgus representative. Wilgus is the company that manages our beach property. No hello, no dear, no signed name, nothing that would indicate any type of friendliness whatsoever. I know that emails can’t convey tone, so her attitude while typing may have been nice, but I’ll never know that. What I do know is that I feel like I bothered her about something that was important to me and she did not take any time to service one of her customers. Maybe she does consider us not worthy of her time. Some customers are like that. But as my professor said…

“There’s no excuse for bad manners.”

So with that said, have a wonderful day everyone. I’m going to make it my goal today to pay it forward to someone. How about you?

Best regards,

Dawn

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