We say ‘thank you’ when people send us a gift, open a door for us, or treated us to lunch. We thank people we see. But how about people we don’t see?
When we eat at a restaurant, we thank the waiter. But do we thank the chef, his assistants, the dishwashers, and the administrative staff who worked together to ensure we experienced a delightful meal?
When we were vaccinated against the coronavirus, we probably thanked the health care worker who administered it. But how much appreciation have we shown to the staff and scientists who developed the vaccine and deployed it globally in the fastest ever for a medicine that saved millions of lives?
When we receive the item we ordered from the e-commerce website, we may have thanked and even tipped the courier who brought it. But how much do we recognise the logistics crew who transported the item from its country of origin? Do we even know who produced the item?
As customers, we see the last mile of service but hardly see the previous ones. It’s the people in the last mile we thank when we are satisfied with an item we bought but it’s also who we complain to when service is bad.
When the service is good and we like the delivery, we tend to thank the last-mile people responsible but when we are not happy, we blame not only the ones at the last-mile but also the supply chain that led to it. We hit as many people as we could with the dissatisfaction we feel.
We shouldn’t forget to appreciate everyone who contributed when things do go well. It doesn’t seem fair when we complain about all of them when things are bad and then not be grateful to them when results are good.
Ellery's Essays 