Manners seems to be a lost art these days. Contemporary living doesn't leave us time to be polite. We forget that having manners should be a staple in our lives. Treating others with decency and respect should happen naturally. It doesn't these days though. Instead, we hurriedly rush through every aspect of our lives forgetting the feelings of others along the way.

Here are some of the ways that manners have been lost in this contemporary age:

Customer Service

This is one of the most notorious positions that have become rude and uncaring. Customer service employees don't see politeness as a part of their job descriptions. What they don't understand is that it is the main thing about their jobs. These are the people that can make or break a business. Customer service people often don't care about how the customer feels.

Walking into a store should be a good experience. Rather than getting that, we are faced with employees who don't want to be where they are and show it. If you ask a question, you are often looked at as though you had committed a crime. Talking to friends who stand nearby seems to be more important to them. This is rude behavior at its best.

Drivers

Drivers are rude people. We fly past people in order to get there first. This causes many accidents on a daily basis. People are known to give the finger when they aren't happy with the way other drivers are operating their vehicles. Road rage is a killer but it happens every day. In fact, it happens millions of times a day across America. Manners are lost on the roadways of the United States.

Work

Workplaces are full of rude people. We step all over each other to get ahead. We treat each other with indignant behavior. This could be due to the fact that most people are overworked and under paid. There is a lot of pressure in our jobs and the stress does funny things to the way we interact with others. This comes out as rude behavior. If you are a polite person that takes great pride in manners, the workplace is probably not where you should be.

Home

We have come to treat even our family members with less than perfect manners. We expect far too much sometimes from others. The pressures from work begin to seep over into our personal lives and we treat each other as though we are the only one that matters. It is terrible to think that we could treat even our own family with such rudeness but it happens all the time.

Our lives are too wrapped up in all the pressures that we forget our manners. We have become accustomed to the use of rude behavior that it has become a way of life. It is terrible that our way of life has been so threatened. This contemporary age doesn't allow us to be polite anymore. Manners are lost in our society so full of ourselves. I'm not crazy about this new way of life. It holds relationships back from gaining their full potential. It keeps us from doing a better job at work and it makes shopping seem like something that is no longer worthwhile. Can't we just get back to basics and learn manners again?

Learn more about this author, Dawn Hawkins.
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