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Americans are explaining why they don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service settings after foreigners complained that 'mmhmm' comes off as rude

www.insider.com Americans are explaining why they don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service settings after foreigners complained that 'mmhmm' comes off as rude

After several foreigners were perturbed by an"mmhmm" response, American TikTokers explained that "you're welcome" actually feels kind of rude.

Americans are explaining why they don't say 'you're welcome' in customer service settings after foreigners complained that 'mmhmm' comes off as rude

I was watching a video from two years ago about different social norms and this showed up. Found someone questioning the same eight years ago on reddit (when it seemed less normalized). It feels so weird not being aware of this shift, even as a foreigner.

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  • @elfpie Somewhat tangential, but this sort of thing is why I almost categorically disregard any review that primarily complains about how "rude" staff was. More often than not this seems to translate to "acted in a way not exactly in line with my cultural and generational norms" or "didn't give me exactly what I wanted." Give the underpaid service workers some slack.

    • A friend of mine worked at McDonald's for a while. The amount of people who take that as license to treat retail workers like shit is quite unbelievable. And indeed: When customers hurl racial or homophobic slurs the manager basically says the customer is king.

      I always wondered why they have such high turnover?!? /s

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