1 . Handwritten thank-you letters are such a simple way of making other people feel good, it is strange that so few people write them anymore. At work, a thank-you letter to employees is unbelievably effective. It costs little and has no side effects. The effort involved in writing letters very low. The pleasure on receiving them is very high.     1    

Doug Conant, manager of Campbell’s Soup Company since 2001, knows the power of thank you letters. He said that every day he works with an assistant, searching the company for people deserving thanks.     2     Over the past 10 years he has sent 30, 000 thank-you letters to his employees — more than 10 each day. The reward is huge: his company has remained one of the most successful in its field for years.

    3     There seem to be three reasons. Firstly, chief executives (主管) running companies think their own work is more valuable than that of others.     4     Secondly, they aren’t close enough to the business to know who deserves thanks. Thirdly, they have forgotten the strange human truth that almost everyone would do almost anything in return for a few words of appreciation.

In these days of such busy schedules and people running all over the place and trying to get ahead, sometimes we forget the simplest things in life are the most powerful and rewarding. You need to think to yourself about a time someone sent you a thank-you and how much it meant to you.     5