The Thank-You Tactic Maybe We Should Join Woman Who Combats Hopeless, Helpless Feelings With Written Expressions Of Thanks

Laura Coker began her campaign a few months ago. It’s a simple idea. You could try it, too.

Coker - a registered nurse currently on disability leave from Sacramento’s Mercy General Hospital - says thank you.

Actually, she sends thank-you notes.

To co-workers. To the bank. To the grocery store. To the garage where her car is repaired. To the post office.

“I don’t write these without having something to say,” she says. “I only write them when it’s appropriate.”

We might do well to reflect on how often in our daily lives it truly is appropriate to thank others for their help - and to do it in writing.

To make it count.

Take Laura Coker’s recent garage experience.

“As a woman not well-versed in cars, you might as well pin a sign on me,” she says. We’ve been there, too, worried we’d be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous and the crooked.

“But these two mechanics showed they were really working hard for me.”

Their employer was a big auto repair dealer.

“So I turned around and wrote a letter of appreciation to their CEO praising them,” says Coker. “I got a letter back from the honchos thanking me for my patronage. They even sent a coupon for a free oil change. And the two guys and their manager got copies of my letter in their personnel files.

“You know, we can’t get it any leaner in America. We just can’t. But if anybody’s job gets cut, it won’t be these two guys’. They have letters of commendation on file.”

So we’re talking guerrilla appreciation tactics - thank-you notes as ammunition in high-stakes corporate warfare.

Etiquette has moved to a whole new level, folks.

It’s dangerous out there.

And who knows, maybe Coker’s letters of commendation really could spell the difference between who gets laid off and who manages to hang on to a job. Besides, it’s nice to say thanks.

“I was at the post office because I had something important to mail,” she says. “And I’m standing in line, what, 30 or 40 minutes. There’s only one guy working the counter. After a while, two other employees wander out. One says, ‘Does anyone need a package picked up?’ “

They weren’t very helpful, in other words. Meanwhile, the clerk at the counter was working away.

“I finally get up to him. He was sharp and focused. Rather than be mad at him, I thanked him for his excellence. And I picked up a complaint-compliments form.” So now the clerk has a letter of appreciation in his personnel file, too. And Coker has a mission.

“I’m making this a way of life,” she says. “It gives me a little bit of control over how I feel about things.

“There’s a lot of hopelessness and helplessness in this country right now,” says Coker. “That’s what depression is - having no control over your life. But if people can learn they have at least a little voice, it can make a difference.

“I’m only one person. I can only touch a small number of people. But if I can make a difference for the guys at the garage or the cashier at Target, I’ve done something.”

We can get so caught up in complaining about what’s wrong that we forget to notice what’s right.

So Laura Coker writes her notes, thanking those who are usually overlooked. She isn’t going to change the face of corporate America, but she might help a few people along the way.

It’s a simple idea, and a sweet one. You could try it, too.