"Thanks". "Thank you". "Cheers". An appreciative raise of the hand. A thumbs up. It's not difficult to be well mannered. Unless you have no arms, the last 2 may be a bit difficult in that case. But then a nod of the head would do. It's so easy to show appreciation to someone who has helped you or served you or provided a service. Now some would argue that a good deed shouldn't be done for the gratitude and I agree to a certain extent, I don't do good deeds to be appreciated, I do it because I like to think I'm a helpful kinda guy. That doesn't mean I don't get pissed off when there isn't even a recognition from the recipient that I've done said good deed.
Take driving. The rules of the road say that if there is an obstruction is on your side of the road then you let the oncoming traffic through before going round the obstruction. Still, common courtesy should still allow a little gesture of thanks my way for doing so. Seriously, how hard is it to nod your head, raise a finger (not the middle one, that would take the piss) or mouth a "thank you" to the guy waiting, letting you through. It isn't hard, so why is the world full of selfish, rude, miserable fuckers that don't. Same applies at a junction. You let someone out and they drive off with a whiff of "About time, bastard" instead of "Thank you sir, have a nice day, may I suck your dick?". Perhaps not the last bit. The ability to show gratitude should be on the driving test. "In a moment I'm going to hit my pen on the dashboard and then I want you to say 'Thank you'". "Th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-at girl has big ti-" - "That's a fail".
I was brought up to be good mannered. I am raising my children to be good mannered. It is important to me that my children show their gratitude to those that help them. It has been passed down to me by my parents, and passed to them from theirs. I imagine I'm not alone in getting this education from the senior members of the family (sorry mum!). So if people are usually taught manners from their elders, why then are old people so fucking rude? These people have taught their offspring and grandchildren about the importance of manners, well here's an idea - use them. If I hold a door open for you, say thank you, don't barge past me. If there is a queue of people at the bus stop don't push to the front of the queue, go outside the door, light a cigarette, then not smoke it until the bus arrives, put the cigarette out and be first on the bus. If I am in your way, say "excuse me" not "you're in my way". An old woman ran into me today with her granny trolley (the standard issue tartan affair they put potatoes and dog food in) as she thought she had the right to be where I was stood. No "excuse me", no "can I just get by?", nothing, just actual bodily harm with a carrier bag on wheels. And the look on her face when I said, sarcastically, "excuse me?", you'd think I'd offered to feed her to her own Yorkshire Terrier.
Anyone who works in a service industry will know what I mean about ungrateful customers. At the end of the day it's your job and you get paid to do it. Not a lot, but you get paid, so professional pride should make you want to do that job to the best of your ability without prejudice. However, in reality, if the person you're dealing with is a twat, be honest, you don't give them a thousand smile service, they're lucky if Bubba the porter doesn't spit in the soup. Or worse. "A little salty, sir?". That being said, good manners in the service industry work both ways, it isn't always the customer that's rude. I had an issue a few years ago with our broadband connection where the download speed was appallingly slow, so I rang customer services and spoke to a gentleman worked for a customer service outsourcing company in the Asian sub-continent. He suggested I take the cable connecting the PC to the router and turn it round plugging the end currently in the PC into the router and vice versa. The speed changed by about 0.02 Mbps. He then concluded that this proved the issue was with my setup and not to call their customer services again as I wouldn't be helped any further as I was just wasting their time. He then hung up. Before I could thank him.
