It is a Problem

Has this ever happened to you? You are enjoying a meal at your favorite restaurant. The atmosphere is wonderful. The food is excellent. The service is top notch. Everything about the evening is perfect. You ask the server to bring some extra napkins. The server responds, “No problem,” she turns and disappears around the corner.

Suddenly all the atmosphere drains out of the moment. “What is this ‘no problem’ stuff?” You ask your companion. In mere moments, the server returns with the napkins, at which time you say “Thank You.” Then, for the second time of the evening, the server responds, “No problem”.

When I was but a wee little lad on my mother’s knee, she taught me to say “You’re Welcome.” when someone said, “Thank You.” I can’t image that at some point in the recent past, mothers began teaching their toddlers to say, “No problem.”

At times like this I start to feel like an old codger. For some reason, this phrase has climbed to the top of the heap of things that bother me. It seems that “no problem” has become an all purpose phrase for any occasion. I have heard it used as a response to “thank you” as noted above. It seems to be just the response to requests made between friends and acquaintances.

When I ask a service person for something that is clearly within their scope of responsibility, I would rather hear words to the effect that the person will be taking care of my request than a “no problem”. When I ask for more tea or more napkins, I really don’t care if it is a problem or not. I just want to be taken care of.

The thing that annoys me the most is that despite my aversion to this phrase, I have caught myself repeating it. Am I the only one that has a problem with “no problem”? If it bothers you too, join me in my effort to eradicate it from my corner of the world.

Stamp out “no problem”.