Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Social experiment number 1: Pens
The title of this post sounds about as boring as can be. Truth be told, it is a pretty boring topic. If you present a guest a pen with a cap on, do they replace it when done, or leave it on top of the pen, leaving it the writing position. Not a big deal when you think about it in the bigger scheme of things. Who cares? I do. It's a simple study of courtesy. A test to see if people return things the way they received them. And not surprisingly, of the seven tables observed today (slowish Wednesday lunch so not the biggest sample group) only one guest returned the pen the way they got it. To put this in perspective: say you lend your car to a friend. They return it, but leave the doors unlocked so that anyone can just get in. The car is still in perfect working order, but hasn't been returned securely, the way it was given. Not a big deal, just something to think about.
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Neat idea, but while leaving a car unlocked has obvious (potential) negative repercussions, leaving the cap off the pen does not. Furthermore, the customer is paying extra for service, so might plausibly consider your replacing the pen cap as part of the service they paid for. And lastly, it could easily be argued that leaving the pen cap OFF is *more* courteous as it saves the next person the trouble of opening it. -chuck o.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't disagree more, chuck o. How can you claim that leaving the cap off a pen has no negative repercussions? Haven't you ever gone to use a pen that you find lying around with no cap, and you lift it to the paper and begin that first stroke to no avail? A dying office supply is nothing to take lightly. Good thing you did not leave the guest a marker to sign with, it would be done. On second thought, maybe you should try markers. Most would be afraid to leave it uncapped, because it would then leave a mark on the receipt or book once you close it through bleeding.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, this is awesome, Drew. I love that your first post was about office supplies. I can't wait to read more. you make me want to bring my blog back.