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Pet peeve - does this happen to anyone else?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Susan Slusser, Jul 11, 2008.

  1. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Ya got me there, Susan; no excuse.
     
  2. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    I have no problem with that at all.
     
  3. mike311gd

    mike311gd Active Member

    I don't think I'd ever have the stones to even ask that question. Good for them, I guess, but that's not my style.
     
  4. Susan Slusser

    Susan Slusser Member

    I've just realized I've asked you all to take time to give ME advice and I've failed to thank you.....the hypocrisy!

    I love the idea of charging a fee. I'll get my consultant business cards printed up right away. I'll double it for the college kids that want to come out and shadow me at a game. ;)

    SportsPredictor, that's entirely possible, since I am neither an editor nor an HR person. I did tell him to make sure he has a backup plan - hard to argue that's bad advice these days.

    Thanks to all of you!
     
  5. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    I'll offer a view from the other end of the court.....

    I'm really not that interested in folks clogging up my email in-box with a reply to sender 'thanks'. I've got more than enough legitimate business traffic, that I'd rather prefer not to have a bunch of fluff coming through.

    Besides, just how genuine is a reply to sender thank anyway? Doesn't take more than a few seconds effort. (Even an old fogey like me could probably even text a thx from my phone in under 5 seconds.) If someone wants to really show their appreciation, (and it would be a nice touch in the 2 hour example listed above), then a handwritten, mailed note or a phone call would be the right approach.

    I hope what I did was of of some help, and if I need some assistance in return someday and I can call on that person, that's thanks enough for me.
     
  6. Susan Slusser

    Susan Slusser Member

    Captain, good perspective, but that's kind of my point - it's so easy to send a quick reply to thank someone, and yet it doesn't happen. It's not like you have find an address and a stamp and paper.....you type a few words and hit send. I'd rather have the full in box and know that A) my response was received and B) that people still have some manners. I can't imagine asking for help from someone and not saying "Thank you'' afterward.
     
  7. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I'll bet when these people send their resumes to newspapers and don't even get a form letter in return, they will be very pissed at the editors' rudeness. I'm not saying it validates what they are doing now, I'm just saying they will get a taste of it soon enough because the absence of manners is not confined to their generation.
     
  8. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I'm just curious to see if the school system where you live teaches anything about job interviewing skills or etiquette.

    Many things are cut out of a school's curriculum thanks to No Child Left Behind, and I am thinking these might be some of the things left out.

    NCLB hit the streets in 2000-2001 so a college grad would have been 15-16ish when our fearless leader came up with the plan.

    To be honest, though, my mom taught me, and I am 38.
     
  9. sblust

    sblust Member

    Back in the better old days - the late '80s and early '90s, when I worked with Susan in Sacramento - I received numerous requests for advice similar to what Susan described. I tried to respond to every one, on the theory that if the person was good but wasn't ready to work at that level yet, he or she might be ready eventually, and I wanted to leave them with a positive impression about the way they had been treated. And that strategy worked; I hired at least two people several years after they initially applied at the Bee.

    That was before e-mail was a regular part of most of our lives, and a lot of those seeking advice actually called and thanked me for taking the time to critique their material. Requests these days produce a "thank you" rate of maybe 10 percent, which I find both disappointing and inexcusable, especially with the immediacy of e-mail. Common courtesy is a lost art.
     
  10. pressmurphy

    pressmurphy Member

    I was involved in the rollout and early development of the web site at my last gig, which is in a city with several universities with MBA programs. Naturally, several of us have received requests over the years to share information or be interviewed as part of case studies done by students.

    I agreed to participate but always noted that I wanted to receive a copy of their presentation at the end of the project. To date, I'm 0-for-5 in receiving anything in return. One of my former colleagues reports that she was 0-for-4 in the same respect.

    I'm pretty sure that for the most part, we're not talking about 22- or 24-year-olds who might still be inexperienced enough to fall into the young-and-dumb category. Some of these people were clrealy in their 30s or possibly even older and still didn't have the courtesy to follow through.

    If these are the people I'm supposed to trust to care for me in my old age, then just hand me the straight-edge razor now and let me be done with it.
     
  11. PeteyPirate

    PeteyPirate Guest

    Well, maybe it was because you didn't get me the job. Duh.
     
  12. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Moms (and Dads) should teach that. No way I'd blame the school systems for a person's etiquette or lack of. Gawd, I can remember my mother making me write every thank-you note from birthday/Christmas gifts before I was allowed to play with any of them. To this day I'm always shooting off thank-yous, even to PR flaks every week who help me get interviews. Granted, those are usually by e-mail, but I still think it's important. And there's a helluva lot of people who remember those gestures.
     
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