Friday, September 14, 2007

Acknowledge Me!

I think many of us would agree that society as a whole is pretty self-centered. Though I should be desensitized to it by now, I'm still surprised and disappointed when I do something nice for someone else and it goes unnoticed. I held the door open for the guy at the bank, not a big deal, but he walks through and completely ignores me. Like my holding the door was expected or, worse yet, required!

On the flip side, as a person who routinely tries to do little acts of kindness, it surprises and disappoints me when people don’t do nice things too; like when I followed a guy into the office on my way back from training this afternoon and he literally let the door slam in my face. Yeeeaaahhhh….

8 comments:

Finlands finest said...

Man, I hear you on that! Of course, I try to be especially appreciative when people do nice things for me. I find it odd that both instances were men, who should be doing the gentlemanly thing and holding the door for you too.

Mamma Sarah said...

Ugh I hate people like that. I always make a point if they don't say thanks... I say Your Welcome in a not so nice tone. Just like when I have to greet the cashier... ugh!

Anonymous said...

going into offices can be different. Do you have a secure entrance? At, well, nearly every place I have worked, we were told REPEATEDLY not to hold the door for anyone, not even your friends, b/c you don't know if they just got canned.

Did you hold the door open to get something, other than the warm fuzzy feeling of helping someone? If that's all you wanted, you did it. If you did it to get the attention, well, that's different, and quite possibly, an odd way to go about doing things for others.

Wow, I'm bitter and negative today.

Karen said...

nope, this was the general all-purpose door to the building.

and i suppose you're right about my reasoning- it was for the warm fuzzy feeling. and i did get it. but it went away when the guy didn't say 'thanks'

Sarah said...

Unfortunately one of the stark realities of society in general is that bad behavior typically receives more attention and response than good behavior.....one of the biggest problems we have with our kids is getting them to understand that in the real world you are not going to be rewarded every time you do the right thing.

And yes, people are rude.

TreyJ said...

Here's something else along those lines: what is the proper response to the phrase, "Thank you"? It should be, "You're welcome," but usually we hear, "No problem," or even worse, "Uh-huh." I'm guilty of this, too, and I hate when I catch myself doing that.

Viki said...

People who let doors slam in the faces of others are assholes. Whenever something like that happens to me I try to reason that the offender may be having a really horrible day and therefore be distracted. It's still annoying...

Katrin said...

Martin says that I am way too nice and polite when on the streets, but so is he. But that's because we are country folks in the big city...

Yesterday we baked three cakes for his new office as a present for his new co-workers. That's how nice we are. Ha! Holding up doors! ;)