As Barney taught me at a young age, "Please and thank you are the magic words, if you want nice things to happen they're the words that should be heard. I'm talking about please and thank you, they are the magic words. Use them in the morning at noon at night cause its a great way to be polite. Please and thank you are the magic words."
I never understood how powerful common courtesy could be until this past week. I work on a dorm with about 16 - 18 teen aged girls. This past week my boss transferred me to a different unit with the more troubled girls. I work with two other staff now. One staff says please and thank you to every girl no matter how rude or demanding they are. The other staff on the other hand does not. It is amazing how the girls react to a simple thank you. Its not like the other staff is being rude or mean he just doesn't say please or thank you.
It's not just the adolescent girls with issues that like to hear thanks. I have a supervisor that every night when I leave he says, "Thanks for all your help today." Um....hello it's my job! Or course I am going to show up and do it. But yet I appreciate him telling me thanks. It shows me that he appreciates all my efforts. It makes me want to come back the next day and work hard.
Because I have noticed these differences these past few days I have been trying to use please and thank you more. Today I took it one step further and I was blow away by my results. When the girls get back from school they are used to staff right off the bat telling them what to do. Today when they walked on to the dorm I simply said "Hi _______. How are you today?" Some gave me weird looks but then smiled and told me. Others went on and on happy to get a chance to talk. But one girl stopped looked at me and said, "I am good." Started to walk away turned around and said, "Thank you for asking Kellie." That right there, something that simply made me realize that how important it is just to be kind. I didn't have to do anything out of my way or spend money. It was really nothing at all. But it made all the difference in some of these girls attitudes.
I'm not saying I am so amazing and everyone be like me! Saying please and thank you is so simple but makes all the difference.
