Where the f*** are your manners?
Posted by: Rob in General Ramblings, Rant, tags: Customers, Hate, Manners, Please, Polite, Rant, Society, Thank You, Unwell-written, WorkThe title post was intended to be ironic, so don’t be jumping on my neck, it’s too shiny for that.
Anywho, the reason for this post is the astounding lack of manners from my generation, below and some above. I know now that I’m going to turn into one of those old men who look and tut at the younger generation as they beat and drink themselves stupid while swearing at each other, But well feck it I’m on the way there so why stop.
I work behind a desk, in a shop, in a town. Not a single day goes by, where someone points at something that they want without uttering a word, not to mention the lack of please or thank you. I’m talking about coming into the shop, staring at me, pointing to a computer and sitting down. Then there’s the twats who wander in, grunt “computer upstairs” and wander up there without allowing time for me to give them a number. It’s as if people expect to be waited on hand and foot because they’re a “customer”, I don’t know if it’s just me or society in general, but where the hell have manners gone?
Now I can’t tar everyone with the same brush, I do have quite a few people my age and below that ask politely, don’t even have to say please, it’s just the manner in which it’s done. I’m not asking for everyone to be verbal in their politeness, just a little bit of manners like waiting in the queue, not cutting in front of someone, not cutting in on the conversation while I’m trying to deal with or help someone, not tutting loudly because the person in front is taking more than 5 seconds to pay, yes you’re wearing a suit, but it doesn’t make you any more important.
I’m starting to feel old and grumpy. I don’t like it, but I certainly don’t think it’s acceptable for society to lose its veneer of civilization, wasn’t that the whole point of evolving and culture to better ourselves?
I’m well aware that I’m not the pinnacle of polite/cultured society myself, I swear (a lot) and enjoy dirty jokes, I enjoy watching TV and drinking beer. The difference between me and the people I complain about is I won’t answer my phone while dealing with someone that I’ve engaged, i.e. a banker, barista, shop assistant. I’ll say thank you when I’m leaving, I don’t throw my wrappers or rubbish on the ground, it’s how I was raised. I’m polite, overly polite at times, but this brings me to the point of my rant. Why does modern society appear to be coming mannerless? Was it always this way and we’ve never really changed? Maybe I’m just whining too much and should become less polite to people if they’re not willing to show equal respect. Or maybe it’s time to burn the cities down and start again.
Anywho, old man Rob needs some coffee so I’ll wrap this up.
Don’t be an ignorant mannerless twat. Thank you.
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Good luck with getting any results in this area.
I can be a grumpy (well, duh…) bugger sometimes, and I’ll admit that it’s not always retaliation for improper behaviour. But most often, though, it IS because the shmeghead across the counter from me didn’t bother with please or hello.
I’m reasonably convinced that, yes, society IS getting less polite generally speaking. It’s certainly a measurable trend that language in general has been abused for the last 30 years - in an almost systematic way, much like an Austrian girl in a basement. The desire to make expressions shorter, use less words, less complicated words… Simplifying spelling (it’s coloUr, you damn Yanks!), etc. Then it went completely overboard with the idiotic use of text-message/IMC abbreviations, and of course you have to factor in the crappiness of most educational systems these days.
So, people are not encouraged to use proper language. And funnily enough, it seems to be a self-sustaining reaction. The less language they use, the less they want to use. Eventually, it spills over into the realm of manners - why bother saying hello or please? It’s an extra word…
Sounds far-fetched? Take any Victorian-era text, and gape open-mouthed at the fine and flowery language people used back then. And reflect upon the fact that this was probably THE most polite era of our history - at least among the lettered people.
If people could be bothered to read every once in a while, and I don’t mean page 3 of The Sun, maybe they’d open their minds a bit - and who knows, THAT might cause a cascade effect in the otther direction for once…