No problem!

I was reading a James Patterson book the other day when something that one of the characters noticed caught my attention. He made an observation that when he had thanked someone for a particular task, the reply was, "No problem" as opposed to "You're welcome." That might seem a little insignificant, but I have noticed that myself in the past several weeks at work as well. Not just others responding that way (usually in an instant message session), but myself as well.

In reality, it wasn't a problem, but it still seems like one of those things that you use to cover up something. Kinda like the "favorable" letter of recommendation -- "We would be happy to see Johnny work for your company..." when what they really mean is "get this guy outta here he's crumbling our company!" No problem almost makes it seem like you meant to say, "you inconvenienced me, but I did it for you anyway." You're welcome sounds more like you are almost honored to be helping someone else. That's the way it should be. Helping others should make us feel good. I love to share information with people at work, or do something quickly that I (and they) know would take them much longer. It's a lot easier, when I've got the time, to just write a quick query, or create a pivot table, or send them a URL I already have, than for them to mess around, dig for an answer and get frustrated. We both benefit. I get a sense of being useful and they get to move on to be more productive.

The people I work with are all pretty technical -- in their own realm -- and sometimes I feel a little "beneath" them in a jealous way. They seem so smart, spouting things with such confidence and knowledge, about things that I just don't understand. It's not a belittling act on their part at all, it's just that I don't "live in their world." So when they come to me for something that they know I know a lot about (MS Office, SQL, the data in, and structure of, our database), it makes me feel worthwhile.

Although it's not as quick of a finger combination for me yet, I've actually started using "yw" as a shorthand closing in my instant messaging conversations as opposed to "np." It makes me feel different some how. As an added bonus, when I have to explain what "yw" means to someone, I think it makes them stop and appreciate the assistance more as well. Sometimes it is the small things that really make you stop and think...