Filed under: Comment
Before I start I have some good news and bad news for you.
The good news is there’s not going to be any more blog posts from me till Monday.
“Hurrah” I hear you cry.
The bad news is that the reason for this is it’s a National Holiday so I’m basically going to go on my 5th holiday of 2013.
Yes, I know retirees work more than me, but it’s not my fault, I’m only being a good Chinese citizen.
Ahem.
Now I’ve got that out the way, let’s get on with annoying you even more with another post of pointlessness.
Now I appreciate what I’m about to write is hypocritical with a capital ‘H’, but I must admit I’m getting fed up of reading articles that appear to serve no purpose other than to ‘provoke for the sake of provocation’.
Yes, I know with so much media, people have to fill it with something and I understand they can’t get away with writing the indulgent, pointless bollocks that goes on here … but seriously, you can hear the sounds of the barrel being scraped with some of the stuff being published these days.
Case in point, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald deriding the use of sign offs in emails and letters.
No, not your ‘company information’, I mean things like:
Kind regards.
All the best.
Yours sincerely.
Take care.
Speak soon.
Yes, THOSE sign offs.
The things that are a sign of politeness … respect … care.
The things that – in a small way – help keep us human rather than become beasts.
Or robots.
As one commentator stated, we don’t hang up the phone without saying “goodbye” and we don’t walk away from a face-to-face conversations without expressing a similar sentiment … so why written correspondence should suddenly become exempt from these common courtesies is ridiculous, especially when we live in a World where there is already way too little of it.
I wonder if the author of the article really thinks this way?
Given they’ve managed to write an article of 1125 words, maybe they do.
And if that’s the case, I feel sorry for them because they won’t ever know what friendship really is … because while at the end of the day, what you do is more important than what you say, you don’t get respect if you don’t show it to others.
46 Comments
Please tell me if you have more holidays than anyone at Wieden. I’m including the retired +Kennedy in that statement. Thank you.
Comment by DH April 3, 2013 @ 6:23 amProbably not. But yet again, I am innocent in this. The next 2 days isn’t a ‘Only Rob Campbell’ holiday, it’s for China. PLUS, we didn’t have an Easter break and you guys did so in the big scheme of things, I’m only slightly in the lead on days off. Ahem.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:19 amI always found it strange that you could be rude and polite at the same time. Some of the things you said to clients deserved a smack in the face, not a thank you. You were Simon Cowell before Simon Cowell. That is not necessarily a compliment.
Comment by DH April 3, 2013 @ 6:26 am“Charmingly eccentric” – client quote.
Comment by Pete April 3, 2013 @ 6:50 amWhat about the colleague quotes?
Comment by John April 3, 2013 @ 6:51 amOn a good day, “kind bastard”.
On an average day “cheeky bastard”.
On a bad day “planning bastard”.
Comment by DH April 3, 2013 @ 7:08 amYour worst would be my best.
Comment by Billy Whizz April 3, 2013 @ 7:14 amSo the same as his w+k colleagues.
Comment by DH April 3, 2013 @ 7:21 am“Working hard for the devil”.
Comment by Bazza April 3, 2013 @ 7:43 amTo be honest, they’re more polite than I expected or remembered. Ha.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:21 amIt was a skill I honed over many years.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:20 amOne time, I emailed a German colleague late at night asking for some information she had. Instead of the information I was asking for, I got admonished for forgetting to start my email with “Hi” and she followed up with a short essay on treating people like people instead of robots. And she had a point.
Comment by Shackleford Hurtmore April 3, 2013 @ 6:28 amI’m with you, and I use “Kind regards” – I know it means nothing, but emails look naked without it.
Did the germans say “please can we invade your country?” Hypocrites.
Comment by Billy Whizz April 3, 2013 @ 6:40 amI agree with your German colleague. One thing I hated about working in the US was that many people didn’t end their phonecalls with ‘bye’, but just hung up. Not all – but enough for me to often end up holding a phone with no one on the other end.
It might appear ridiculous, but those little words of basic, human politeness are important as hell.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:22 amAnd there were far fewer holidays.
Comment by John April 3, 2013 @ 4:51 pmNot at cynic there wasn’t. Boom Tish.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 5:08 pmMore holidays? I’m going to pack my bags. Even if I only make 0.01% of your salary Rob, all the paid holidays will make it worth while. What am I talking about, if I make 0.01% of your salary I could live like a king.
Comment by Billy Whizz April 3, 2013 @ 6:39 amOne man’s provocation is another’s viewpoint. With a capital H.
Comment by John April 3, 2013 @ 6:42 amI’m not surprised by this post. You still send texts with proper spelling and commas and everything?
Comment by Billy Whizz April 3, 2013 @ 6:42 amThen why doesn’t he do that in this blog?
Comment by John April 3, 2013 @ 6:43 amYou got me there Billy.
As for why I don’t do it on here John … the people I SMS are more important to me than you lot. Ha.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:24 amI agree with this post Robert. If you remove respect then you surrender respect being handed back to you. As for newspapers printing lower and lower grade provocative articles. Well, it’s little surprise they find themselves in the situation they are in. Like agencies, they undersold and undervalued the core asset of their business.
Comment by Pete April 3, 2013 @ 6:57 amNice linkage there Pete … though of course, some newspapers decided to take adlands core asset of creativity and use it to make up completely false stories.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 8:25 amWell Put.
Kind Regards
Rob
Comment by Rob Mortimer April 3, 2013 @ 7:55 amExcellent post Robert. People who believe politeness is a waste of time or energy are not worth the time or energy.
Comment by Lee Hill April 3, 2013 @ 8:35 amI was always taught politeness cost nothing but the failure to use it could be very expensive. But the issue you raise is not about this, it is whether the issue was worthy of a 1000+ word newspaper article. My initial response was no, but having read some of the passionate responses against the authors viewpoint, maybe it is.
Comment by George April 3, 2013 @ 9:59 amBut does it merit a blog post?
Comment by northern April 3, 2013 @ 4:52 pmLet’s be honest, I’ve written posts about far worse.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 5:09 pmHappy Tomb Sweeping, Rob!
(Kind Regards), Ian
Comment by Ian Gee April 3, 2013 @ 5:04 pmAnd to you Ian.
Best wishes,
Rob
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 5:08 pmIn the UK most newspapers and magazines still say ’email us your letters’ (and they still assume the editor to be a ‘Sir’ but that’s for some other time). Getting rid of any kind of sign-off will be a long way off as long as people think of emails as letters and not text messages.
Mind you, some people do sign off their text messages. That is a bit odd and overly formal.
All the best,
Andreea
Comment by andreea April 3, 2013 @ 6:16 pmI sign off pretty much anything and everything … it’s my attempt to not look a total bastard. I know I fail in that quest, but it keeps me deluded.
For the record, I quite like the ‘Sir’ aspect of newspaper editors. I know most aren’t – but it still feels nice given people treat everyone like best buddies half the time.
Jesus, I’ve become Victorian man.
Comment by Rob April 3, 2013 @ 7:07 pmI think the Victorians would have something to say about that
Comment by northern April 3, 2013 @ 7:43 pmi think men would have something to fucking say about that too.
Comment by andy@cynic April 3, 2013 @ 10:26 pmyouve got to be fucking kidding me, another holiday? whoever told the rest of the world that china would bail out the bankrupt bastards was insane, theyre on holiday every fucking week.
best wishes.
unemployed from nyc.
Comment by andy@cynic April 3, 2013 @ 10:24 pmI know dead people who work more than Rob.
Comment by DH April 3, 2013 @ 11:19 pmWho doesn’t.
Comment by Billy Whizz April 4, 2013 @ 12:13 amBirdflu death in Shanghai – there go the holidays.
Comment by John April 4, 2013 @ 6:16 amyoure so fucking gullible doddsy. cant you see this birdflu story was started by campbell to orchestrate more holiday in the future? the more china shits itself of an outbreak, the more the people get ordered to stay at home. its possibly the best bit of planning campbell has ever done.
Comment by andy@cynic April 4, 2013 @ 7:59 amThat explains why north korea have been acting up. It’s got nothing to do with war, just Rob trying to guarantee more holidays. Maybe there was no credit crunch and it was all a rumour started by Rob to make companies panic, spend less on advertising and give him more time off for doing nothing. It’s one giant da vinci code conspiracy.
Comment by DH April 4, 2013 @ 8:26 amAnyone else think the titles Rob has given the links in the post we can’t comment on are the most creative thing he’s done on this blog?
Comment by DH April 4, 2013 @ 8:27 amNah, the April Fools joke was actually pretty good.
Comment by northern April 4, 2013 @ 8:58 pmWhereas he’s reduced everyone to one word brand essences.
And anyway, mine isn’t tea, it’s underachiever
Isn’t that spelt p-l-a-n-n-e-r?
Comment by DH April 5, 2013 @ 12:04 amThat’s right, kick a man when he’s down
Comment by northern April 5, 2013 @ 12:10 amYour one word essence is better than I’d give any other planner. So I’m giving you a compliment.
Comment by DH April 5, 2013 @ 12:22 amGet a room perverts.
Comment by Billy Whizz April 5, 2013 @ 1:20 am