Be the 10th leper

Yesterday at church the sermon was on thankfulness. One of the examples used was the story of the ten lepers. If you aren't familiar with this, you can google it or read Luke 17:11-19. I'd recommend you do that now so the rest of the post makes sense.

I think our society is full of lepers 1-9. One of the things the minister talked about is writing thank you notes. That really struck a cord with me.  At work we send flowers or a fruit basket (based on the recipient's preference if known) when someone has a baby, is hospitalized, or has a death in the family of someone covered by our funeral leave policy. Do you know how often someone says "thank you", let alone writes a note? VERY rarely. In case you didn't guess, I'm the one whose job it is to send those things. Not getting a "thank you" is irritating for two reasons. First is of course the lack of gratitude. Secondly, I have no way of knowing if the person actually got what we sent, if it was nice etc.

My mom and I were talking about the sermon, and she said she read that you should always at a minimum send an e-mail when you have a job interview. I told her some HR people will not hire people who don't send a thank you. Pay close attention to this if you are looking for a job.

I know the marketing person at our local mall. They used to have events every couple of months that benefited different local charities. I told her how I'd left a message wanting to volunteer at one of the groups they'd featured, but no one had ever called me back. She stated that of all the groups they had featured, only ONE had ever said thank you. If you work for a nonprofit, MAKE SURE your donors and volunteers know that their gifts are appreciated. Otherwise, you may not ever have to worry about expressing thanks again for your group.

Gratitude in in the workplace is also sorely lacking. I know of one manager in particular at my employer who barks orders to her people, nary a please in earshot. Rarely do I hear a "thanks" to her own team emanate from her either. I will give my boss props on this one. He uses please and thank you all the time, and I appreciate this. However, I recently dealt with coworker whose lack of organization caused me lots of extra work. Not one word of appreciation for all I did. Yes, it was my job to do those things, but he made it take lots of extra time and effort. Remember as a kid, being asked "What's the magic word?" when you made a request? The magic doesn't cease in adulthood.

This sermon really made me think. I have told people before that I want to be the 10th leper. It reaffirmed my commitment do to just that.