Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Pay it Forward - a new letter writing campaign

Bear with me while I share the story that led to my campaign. Many years ago when I was still in college, I was required to take a senior seminar, the only requirement of which was that it had to be outside your major area of study. For me, that meant no math or computer science. I had transferred to the school as a senior and didn't have four years' worth of experience with the faculty or student rumors, so I didn't know anything about the seminars. I selected "The Politics of Revolution" because I thought it sounded interesting. I was to learn later, that most seniors tried to get into classes that were known to be easy or taught by lenient professors, but I didn't know any better.

I took my form to the registrar's office and the clerk shook her head. Apparently, the seminars - which were a graduation requirement - filled up quickly. "Which professor?" she asked. I answered and she said, "Oh, yeah, that one'll be open." Now, that should have been a warning, right? What can I say? I was naive.

There were 30 students on the first day of class. How am I so sure of that number? Because the professor made a point of counting aloud. He handed out a fairly demanding syllabus. 90-110 pages of reading for each class, one 10 page critical analysis of A Brave New World, and a 15-20 page thesis on a guerrilla group. The professor gave two grades per class (one before the break and another after). He made sure every student was asked two questions per class. Papers were due at 5:30 (the start of class). He took off five points for each minute it was late. Additionally, if your paper was only half of the required page count, your grade started at 50.

I am a literal-minded geek, so I loved it. I knew exactly what I had to do to get a good grade. I was kind of tired of students failing the required work and asking if they could write an extra-credit paper to make up points. How is that fair to a student who actually studied and did all of the required work on time?

At any rate, I did the best work of my academic career in that class. I was proud of my thesis, and it won a writing award for being the best senior thesis that semester. The night he handed back the papers, I was leaving the building to go home when I was stopped by other students. I should point out that there were only 14 of the original 30 left by that point, the others having dropped the class weeks before. These students were getting together to write a letter of complaint about the professor. I had received an awesome grade and wanted no part of their rebellion.

I went home but the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed that they were complaining. So I sat down and wrote a glowing letter to the deans about him and the awesome experience I had in his class. I wrote that his class was a credit to the school and a shining example of quality education. I never knew what happened with that letter (except that the professor is still teaching there), but it opened the experience of writing positive letters to me. And I liked it.

Most people only write letters of complaint. I hate doing that. First of all, everyone has had a bad day at one time or another and not responded well to a difficult situation. That silly letter you write could be held against someone receiving a raise or a promotion. I don't like that kind of karma. Don't get me wrong, there are situations in which it is warranted - if you were cheated of money or services, or someone was cruel or hurtful beyond just having a poor stress response. Generally speaking, however, I avoid complaint letters.

Instead, I write glowing letters of thanks and recommendation. I wrote one to a financial institution after their representative spent hours helping me transfer 401K money around and explaining my options, etc. To my surprise, a few weeks later, I received a call from the representative's supervisor telling me that the employee would be recognized at the company's annual meeting because of my letter. I felt awesome and all I was getting was a thank you! Imagine how good the gentleman who helped me was feeling!

Karmically speaking, I suppose I was paid back when a few years later, a client wrote a letter of thanks to my employer for my help in fixing some long-standing programming problems they had been having. And I was right - it did feel really good to have someone write a nice letter about me.

Anyway, writing letters of thanks has become a thing for me. To date, I've received four or five responses from companies, thanking me for taking the time and noting that the employee would be recognized or have a positive note added to their employment record. And it's much easier these days - for a lot of companies you can submit them on-line. No stamps, envelopes or mail boxes involved! If you want to do something nice for a deserving stranger, I highly recommend this.

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