Some people will only give you an implied thank you. They’ll make promises and such, but they’ll never actually say the words “Thank you.”
I tend to actually use the words. Even if a thank you is implied, it never hurts to hear the words. Kinda like the whole ‘i love you’ thing. Remember Patrick Swayze in Ghost? What was it he said… ‘Ditto’? Homegirl just wanted to hear him say the words.
In addition to the implied thank you, some people will make promises and never follow through. “Oh thanks, I owe you a case of beer.” I hear it all the time. Still, though, I’m the one buying my cases of beer.
Sometimes people will argue with me when I say that I don’t expect any payment. “It’ll be my pleasure to help you with whatever…”. “Oh thanks so much, I’ll bring you a case of beer! You’re the best!” No beer. Still. You should’ve just accepted my payment-free offer, said thanks, and be done with it. But no, now you’ve got a guilty conscience weighing you down… or do you?
Jim Jamesson
2008.11.13
Brings to mind a pro bono website design we were approached with a couple years back. I received this long-winded email about how this non-profit organization needed a website, and how they were trying to do good to improve the community. All sounded great until the last assholish paragraph:
“…and we’ll need this thing up asap, so hopefully your workload is low right now and we can get the ball rolling.
Regards, Person”
Not a single thank you, not a single mention of any appreciation of my time. Although I gave this person the benefit of the doubt in this first email, not one subsequent email even IMPLIED a thank you. It felt almost as if we were required to do this website for free, and that is no good feeling at all. Of course, eventually we told this person to eat shit and go elsewhere, but at least I said thanks in my emails.