"No Problem"

Many young people have to work part time jobs while in school or even as start of jobs for their careers to make money be able to afford to live in today’s world. Common jobs are at grocery stores, clothing department stores, or your local gas station. These jobs often have interactions with customers directly and result in conversation or exchange of polite words.

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I have often been in situations just like these at my former jobs as well as my current since they have been mostly all customer service related jobs. When I do something for a customer, such as look something up, answer a question, or get something for them they would not be able to get, most of the time when a customer says “thank you,” I have always responded with “no problem.”

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Apparently this has become an issue for older generations, and they have started to call us out. I have seen numerous postings about this “issue” on social media and how the younger generations just learn manners and say “you’re welcome” instead of “no problem.”

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From my side of the situation and being the person that says “no problem,” I see no issue. I should not have to say “you’re welcome” in most situations because it was actually not a problem. I am usually doing whatever my job entails and the customer usually as cause no inconvenience to me, therefore “no problem” is an appropriate response. It also shows that we do not feel like people have to say thank you to us at all.

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I think it is ridiculous that older generations seem to find a lot of things wrong with the younger generations. If the older generations believed that we need better manners and learn to say “you’re welcome” instead of “no problem” which is still a response, they should have taught us to.

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It seems as if the older generation is angry that we feel as if doing things for them as a customer, is not a problem for us and we would happily do it without recognition. It goes back to the fact that the younger generations are “entitled” or “need a trophy for participation” when in reality, we just do whatever is expected of us to do and live our lives without worrying if someone says thank you to us for doing your job or not.