I just went to my formerly favorite Dunkin’ Donuts for an unsweetened iced tea with lemon. As mentioned in a previous post, this DD now has an all new lunchtime staff, and since I’m no longer here on a routine basis, they don’t know me or my usual order. I can handle that.
What I can’t handle is when I’m handed the unsweetened iced tea with lemon and I say “Thank you”, the clerk responds with “No problem.” No problem? I just made a purchase that contributed to your paycheck and you respond with no problem?
If my grandfather or father were alive and that happened in the family store, we’d be scolded to the brink of tears (by my grandfather) or to a very uncomfortable silence of disappointment (by my father).
I have prefaced quite a few Facebook statuses with “I might be getting old…” lately but I am really starting to think that I am one of those old people that talks about the good old days. While I find canned phrases such as “Thank you for shopping at wonderful Hills” to be absolutely ridiculous, I do expect cashiers and the like to say “Thank you” on behalf of the retailer that employs them. The truth of the matter is, I should be happy that they haven’t spit in my tea, but I find it very disheartening when I hear “no problem” in response to someone doing their job. Maybe I’ve watched too much Downton Abbey lately and my head is stuck in the early 20th century, but I am feeling increasingly obsolete with my expectations and ways and quite frankly it disappointing to me.
Earl says I worry about little stuff too much. I think that when you have a million cases of “little stuff” to worry about, you have a whole bunch of big stuff to worry about because all of the little stuff was a symptom of a bigger problem.
Thank you for reading this.
One of the artists at my studio says “No problem” instead of “Thank you” and it bothers me. I’ve said something to him about it, and I know he’s conscious of it, but I think it’s become almost autonomic.
Sadly, I tend to hear people saying “No problem” instead of “Thank you” more and more. I wonder why the origin and switch began. And what does it say about the people using it?
I was curious as to why the switch was happening as well. I think the reason might be because people don’t give a shit anymore.
That. And something I thought about, “no problem” actually seems more like a “yes, it was a problem, but don’t worry about it you didn’t interrupt me too bad”.
Perhaps “no problem” should be translated to “it’s ok, I wasn’t texting at the time.”
Or sexting….
That doesn’t provoke a positive image in many of these cases.