By Staff
Jason Cannon
First thing every morning I come to work and check my voice mail and email.
It may sound simple but this can take up to an hour.
Most of the time it doesn't take that long but when I sit down in my office each morning, I know I'll dedicate at least 30 minutes to returning various forms of communication.
It's amazing at how many emails I can accumulate from the time I go home every evening to the time I arrive each morning. Especially when you consider that I periodically check my email from home.
Finally, after reading and returning/deleting about 100 emails and checking and returning a handful of voice mails, it's time to turn my attention to the mail-mail.
When I was little, I remember thinking how cool it was that people – namely my parents – got mail. The once or twice a year I got something in the mail, it made me feel grown up.
Now, I get mail all the time but most of it is bills or junk destined for the trash.
Last week, while rummaging through my daily mail and newspapers, I opened a letter from a friend of mine – my best friend from high school who is now an attorney in Birmingham.
Tiffany and I had gotten together with him and some other friends the weekend before. His letter was a thank you note of sorts.
He's always been that way – a guy that does things "the right way," even if they're a little old-fashioned.
I can't remember the last time I got a thank you letter. Furthermore, I can't remember the last thank you letter that I've written.
It would have been much simpler, and 41-cents cheaper, to send an email or pick up the phone.
But even in 2007, I'm sure if you asked Miss Manners, she would say that a properly written letter is the only way to go.
As I read the three-line letter I began to wonder how many people I owed a thank you letter. Was there someone out there who goes to the mailbox daily, looking for that thank you letter that I've never sent?
I doubt it.
But I'm taking this simple letter as a wake up call for better manners. I've fired up my letterhead and sent him my "you're welcome" letter.
And knowing him, I am sure that I'll get his "no, the pleasure was all mine" letter by the beginning of next week.