Thank you for doing your job.

The other day the mailman stopped by our office to deliver mail. He noticed a stamped envelope we had put on the chair, ready to be mailed. He picked up the envelope and said, "I'll take this!"

Apparently, this is surprising. We are supposed to walk to the corner of the street and put our mail in the mailbox.

He looked at us for a moment, expecting a huge, grateful "thank you!".

I said, "Thank you?" Like, I'm supposed to thank you for doing your job? He smiled and left, feeling good about himself.

Thank you for doing your job. Should we really be thanking people for doing their job? I say, yes, as a courtesy. To be polite. But such thank-yous are strictly not necessary. People doing their jobs are being paid to do their jobs after all or else they probably wouldn't be doing them.

Another gripe I have with the post office is insurance on lost items. You can pay more to "cover" the cost of a lost item, in case the post office screws up. Here's what the post office is essentially saying:

"Here's the cost for mailing a letter. Now, if you pay more, and we screw up, you'll get your money back." Umm, shouldn't you get your money back, regardless? They didn't do their job.

Let's apply the insurance idea to other industries:

Servers at restaurants. Here's the price of the items on the menu, but if you pay more, and our server delivers the wrong food, you can get the right food delivered to you!

Sports tickets. Here's the cost of the ticket. But if you pay more and the team decides not to show up, we'll give you your money back.

Amazon.com. Here's the cost of a book. But if you pay more and we end up not sending you your book, we'll send you the right book.

Makes no sense.