Gordaen’s Blog

Adults are always saying children these days just aren’t as courteous as in the past. Rarely is it said that adults are not as courteous. So, I’m saying it.

I’ve been apartment hunting for some time now in anticipation of the school year coming to a close and preparing for my full-time summer position. I did quite a bit of research online and via word of mouth and found a few good places to start. The first one I checked out was supposed to be great. I talked to the manager and she said that they had a 2-bedroom place that would be available, so I left her my name and number so that she could call me after talking with the current resident to set up an appointment for me to take a look at it. A week later, I heard nothing, so I called during business hours. No answer, so I left a message. I never heard anything back, so that place removed itself from the list.

Two weeks ago I called another place after checking out their apartments from the outside. Asking if they had any opening up on June 1st, I was informed there would be a few available and asked if I would like to set up an appointment. Today was that appointment. I went and checked out the place, pretty nice, and then I found out that they no longer have any openings until September. I specifically said I needed a place at the beginning of June. Did they think if they did a really good job showing me the place that I would be willing to sleep in a cardboard box for a few months to snag the September deal?

I’ve also been treated rudely, just because I am only 23, so obviously that means I’m some punk kid who needs parental permission to move in or something. Never mind that I am somehow affording college entirely on my own and served in the military for four years. I’m just a kid. As if just sitting around and becoming OLD is somehow more valuable than accomplishing something in your youth. It’s a lot like insurance companies: so you’ve been driving 8 years and have always had sporty cars, including a 13-second car for the past three years, and you’ve never had a ticket or an accident… well obviously you are a terrible driver because you are a young male. BOHICA!

I also see that fewer and fewer people respond to e-mails. People will often take longer to write an e-mail explaining why they can’t do something than to just do it. For example, I e-mailed someone asking about getting some files in a different format so they would be more compatible with every user. Basically my e-mail said, “The current format requires an extra program to view. That program is not available on Mac, which represents 10% of our audience. Can you send me the files in PNG format?” Now, I know that can be done, rather easily in fact, but I sent a long and elloquent e-mail with far too much politeness. The first e-mail reply was basically, “Did you see if there is a new version of the program out?” Of course I checked. How else would I know that the program is not available on the Mac? Regardless, even if it was, that does not address the concern that no-one wants to download an extra program. The next e-mail came before I even replied to that one and was CC’ed to my boss too, asking, “Are you sure PNG is a good format? The server might not handle it.” The server can handle it fine (the real question would be browser support), but I basically said, “fine, let’s use JPG format then.” Of course I still have not received a response…. not even a basic courtesy e-mail saying, “Okay, it will be a few days before I can get to it but I should have it to you by X day.”

Oh courtesy, my friend, I see you less every day!