"Please Do Not Enter"
Tuesday, 09 December 2008 18:25
File this under "Only in Seattle."
Somehow, it's too rude to just put a sign on a door saying "Do Not Enter" - they had to preface it with "Please."
Another eg, at the Seattle Direct Marketing Association meeting last Wednesday there was someone who also went to DMA events in San Francisco; the current SDMA president, Sue Engdahl, thanked him for coming and bought him a drink. A nice thing to do. It had never happened in SF, even though his company was a sponsor.
Little things.
When we moved up here from the Bay Area, we were suspicious of all this common courtesy. Is it "real"? Do people mean it when they say, "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help"?
I'm still skeptical. My pithy summation of humanity was "People Suck" - that if someone believes they can do something that will benefit themselves, regardless if it impinges on someone else, they will do it if they think they can get away with it. From all I've seen and done, through all the interactions I've had with Pacific Northwesterners in the almost six years we've been here, I am now obliged to reassess.
I'm not 100% convinced, but I'm willing to concede there are exceptions, and Seattle has more exceptions than elsewhere.
At least here people say "Please," and that's a good start.