Miss Manners (Judith Martin) says ” Manners are important in life. Good ones that is. You can get attention if you use proper etiquette. Politeness is what most guests look for. If your parents raise you correctly, you will probably have fair manners.”
Law of etiquette says that thanks should be given swiftly. The more time passes, the more diluted the “Thank You” is received. I rarely receive timely thank you notes from applicants thanking me for taking the time to interview them. But when I do!! This quick meeting ( one of 50-60/week) is a little more permanently secured in my memory. Does it give these interviewees an edge over others? Not always. But when I am trying to decide who to send on a job interview or assignment and have 2 candidates with otherwise equal education & skill qualifications, this one small gesture will almost always trump the non-thanker.
Why? Saying “Thank you” is not just good manners. It’s good follow up…and good follow up is essential to ANY job. Office urban legend says good follow up is only essential to sales or customer service. Not true. Any job in any industry no matter what the function, requires interaction with people. To be successful at working with people, you must have at least moderately decent follow up. It doesn’t matter how talented you are, what a savant you think you are with marketing, accounting, engineering, IT or anything else. What matters is that you are able to perform your job duties AND interact positively with your boss, supervisor, internal & external customers, coworkers and vendors.
When interviewing to fill an open position, “hard” skills are just as important as “soft” or people skills. Increasingly, we see companies who now test people on this and put as equal a weight into how they are expected to work with others as they do with the amount and quality of work expected to be produced. Playing well with others is an absolute when contributing to and/or leading a team.
Thank you. It’s just a simple two word phrase, but when used sincerely there is no substitute. I hate hate hate folks with poor manners! By failing to utter a simple “Thank you”, these mannerless vagabonds are really saying “You’re not important”. Even worse though is spitting out a rote “thank you” response to any kindness shown. This parroting is insincere and is the far greater blunder of the two mistakes. If you’re not truly thankful, keep it to yourself. If you are, then show your appreciation….just like your mama (or Miss Manners) taught you!
