Thank You But No “Thank Yous”!

The wave of thank you ads that flooded the newspapers lately is somewhat sickening. These thank yous are mostly addressed to heads of companies for the annual salary increases and in some cases for bonuses as well. The ads are presented in the usual flowery designs with even more flowery language. Everytime I read such ads I quiver. If there is such a thing as a collective Freudian slip, this trend is one. It clearly shows the centralization of the decision making process when it comes to the development and wellbeing of the staff. It is also indicative of the lack of proper job evaluation and adjustment processes in the companies concerned. In addition, the fact that acknowledgments were made this year shows that salary adjustments are an exception rather than a norm indicating a serious disregard was made in the previous years. Some might say that this year the adjustment was exceptional. Well extraordinary circumstances call for exceptional measures. Regardless of how unusual this year has been, appropriate measures taken by good management practices should never be thanked. It is the duty of any self-respecting entity. It is simply fulfilling one’s end of a contract. In the same way the employees should satisfy their end of the contract by offering the best that they have to offer. I strongly believe that good managers find the best thank you in a job well done. Anything else is nothing but a mumbo jumbo of hot air.

The repeated episodes of this pretentious and at best insincere gestures show the weakness of the management processes leading employees to resort to such hypocritical tactics in an effort to please a man or woman who is running the company as his or her own show. Besides, in such an environment, who usually makes such decisions? I would not be surprised if those thanked are in one way or the other in on the fact that they are being non-discreetly thanked and shown appreciation in such public display of nonsense.

Once a thank you is meant to massage the ego of an egomaniac and once it is done in such a public manner as advertising it in an ad in the newspaper, it ceases to be genuine. It loses its essence. It then becomes a subliminal message to all readers of how retarded the thankers and the thankees are.

The wave of this breed of thank yous has permeated into other establishments within our society. We are now hearing of thank yous for the delays in hiking prices of some energy prices for few weeks. Thank yous for taking measures to temporarily overcome and remedy incompetence in government planning and execution of foreseen measures. Thank yous for delaying the inevitable. Thank yous for providing decent housing, Thank yous for properly utilizing tax payers’ money. The way I see it, as long as there are endless disasters in store, there will be endless thank yous.

Finally I must stress that I love the whole notion of gratitude and of thanking people for any good deed or any generous gesture. In fact I find it as a necessary and minimum courtesy. I love calling friends after a lunch or dinner to let them know how special it feels to be invited. If someone does something nice to me, I always like to say thank you. I especially love doing it when it is least expected. I really love doing it because I genuinely feel it.

Thank you for reading this post.