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Disruptions: It is rude to send a "Thank You" e-mail.
bits.blogs.nytimes.com
My first impression was that this is just sad but I guess that different people (and cultures) have different expectations when it comes to communication.
With that said, the author is living inside a bubble created by his environment and his expectations. Saying that everyone should conform to his way of communicating is rude. Saying "thank you" to someone (through whatever communication channel you find most appropriate) is generally not rude.
Seriously though, I'm curious how many people send thank you emails (or even cards) after an interview. I was always taught that it was extremely rude not to do this, but I'd say as a conservative estimate, we get thank you e-mails after less than 1 of every 10 interviews.
(Side note: this isn't just my opinion - there's a decent amount of research on the growth of narcissism in modern scotiety. Look at the work of Dr. Jean Twenge, for example)
A small example:
>My father learned this lesson last year after leaving me a dozen voice mail messages, none of which I listened to.
If you enable voicemail and allow people to leave you messages, it's on you to listen to them. Social interactions are no different than product or software design - don't include an affordance for a feature that you don't want the user to use or, worse, will result in guaranteed failure to accomplish the desired task. The fault isn't the caller's.
Are people getting so many 2-word "thank you" emails a day to show this article has a valid point? Don't get me wrong, sending merely "thank you" as a reply-all to a 200-person recipient list is one of the biggest email sins. But as a unicast, it serves the purpose of acknowledging receipt. If it was worth sending, it was worth knowing it was received, understood, and appreciated.
I think this article makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, I'll assume it's serious. A great piece of advice I heard a long time ago: if you constantly feel you're in a rush or don't have enough time for small tasks, you're probably not actually busy, you're mentally disorganized. Simplify the way you perceive the world and properly prioritize things. I feel like that advice applies well to this article. A superfluous e-mail is not a big deal.
Maybe this is why the people I interview almost never send us thank you notes. Here I thought it was just a general decline in etiquette, but they're really just being respectful of our time! Seriously though, I'm curious how many people send thank you emails (or even cards) after an interview. I was always taught that it was extremely rude not to do this, but I'd say as a conservative estimate, we get thank you e-ma…
Honestly, it only takes a few minutes to write a simple thank you note and send it, so there's no excuse not to.