{"id":746,"date":"2012-12-20T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/20\/no-problem-must-be-stricken"},"modified":"2012-12-20T00:17:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T00:17:00","slug":"no-problem-must-be-stricken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No problem\u2019 must be stricken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019ve just spent about an hour in a major retail outlet in Amarillo staffed by individuals ranging in age from, oh, 18 to about 30.<\/p>\n<p>I think I said \u201cthank you\u201d a dozen times to them as they helped my wife and me with our shopping needs. Their response? \u201cNo problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That impolite response to an expression of thanks brought something to mind. My congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, told me once years ago that he lays down a set of rules for young interns who work in his D.C. office. They are: Call your mother; remember that what\u2019s said in the office <em>stays<\/em> in the office; use good manners all the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGood manners\u201d as I remember it included using proper responses, such as when someone says \u201cthank you.\u201d Mac\u2019s rules mean that you respond with \u201cyou\u2019re welcome.\u201d Responding with \u201cno problem\u201d doesn\u2019t cut it with Rep. Thornberry. I happen to agree with him.<\/p>\n<p>I know the kids running around this retail outlet today didn\u2019t intend to be disrespectful or rude. They smiled when they said \u201cno problem\u201d as I thanked them. I appreciate the grins and the good cheer.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a simple thing, or so it would seem, to say \u201cyou\u2019re welcome,\u201d which is the proper way to answer someone who takes the time to thank you. \u201cNo problem\u201d implies vaguely that you think there <em>is<\/em> a problem. Indeed, today there were no problems at all with the service we received, even in this place full of customers scurrying around in search of the perfect Christmas gift.<\/p>\n<p>So, in the Christmas spirit, I would like to offer this gentle admonition to those who fall continually into the \u201cno problem\u201d verbal trap when someone offers them a word of thanks: Don\u2019t do it, please.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve just spent about an hour in a major retail outlet in Amarillo staffed by individuals ranging in age from, oh, 18 to about 30. I think I said \u201cthank you\u201d a dozen times to them as they helped my wife and me with our shopping needs. Their response? \u201cNo problem.\u201d That impolite response to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=746\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018No problem\u2019 must be stricken<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}