My friend lives in an apartment building that has a doorman/porter. She says he is a very friendly man who always oversees package deliveries, maintenance, and everything else that happens in the building.
In the lobby there is a book in which residents can make notes to the doorman. Often these are inquiries about a package or a meter reading. After flipping through the book recently, though, my friend noticed how many of the notes were complaints, and petty ones at that. One person wanted the outside of his windows to be cleaned, another griped about recycling days, and so on and so forth. Many of these complaints seemed to be out of the doorman’s purview, but people thought nothing of piling more work on his shoulders. If a resident had a legitimate complaint, she says, it would be reasonable to expect action to be taken. But these items were all nit-picky requests.
My friend couldn’t do anything about the complaints, but she wanted to show her appreciation to the doorman. She wrote a note thanking him for his hard work in the book, and has brought by coffee when she’s coming back from a cafe.
It’s easy to take people for granted. Do we ever stop and thank them? Do we ever show our appreciation? Or do we just come up with more things for them to do?