To think acknowledging this member of staff and saying thank you takes seconds. What would you have done?

[sandrapinchedmysandwich]

I am at a large train station in the waiting room and a member of staff has just come in to let people know of a general change of timetable and a replacement bus service for one of the main services. He did this as a general announcement and not one person acknowledged him. Afterwards he kind of stood there a bit awkwardly before leaving. So not to drip feed he appeared to be at least partially blind and perhaps couldn't see people well. Most people here are on their own and not many have ear buds /headphones on as far as I can see so being engrossed in conversation or not hearing him isn't relevant to most

I just think it doesn't hurt to say thank you. A couple of people got up to leave after this in the direction of where the bus would be departing from so looks like this was at least helpful for them.

Would you expect people to say thank you / acknowledge you in this situation or would you expect to be ignored? I know we don't thank airline staff when they do the safety demo either so maybe saying thank you isn't the done thing. But when he stood there awkwardly afterwards, saying thank you just felt like what should happen.

Edit. I did thank him. I was the only one who did

Why didn't you thank him?

Did you thank him?

I did. I was the only one who did

Yes I did. I have edited my post as it wasn't clear

I'd have thanked him for sure.

Because people are rude and entitled and any civility and manners went out the window years ago

Oh for gods sake. This place is so weird sometimes. I DID thank him. I don't know why he stood awkwardly afterwards but probably because noone else did and maybe to wait for questions.

I was already on my phone on Mumsnet because that's what I do when I have a lengthy wait for a train. I didn't whip my phone out because of this as you say and I might as well post now while I have nothing else to do

The last post was for @thatlastonereally

I think I'd have just treated him as someone doing his job - not someone doing me a favour. I'd probably have harrumphed and gathered my stuff to go off wherever we were being sent.

I do thank bus drivers, shop and serving staff. Not sure I'd thank the bearer of bad news.

I don't think this is that deep tbh

Perhaps you are well above average in awareness of your surroundings, in which case you will probably have to get used to that fact because you aren't going to be able to make everyone change their behaviour.

Also, a lot of people are a bit on edge when travelling. If someone, especially a man, especially a man who looks a bit non-standard, comes into a waiting room and starts talking to everyone, sadly a lot of people's first thought is going to be "Loony asking for money" and they will scrunch themselves up, turn up the volume on the earbuds, and ignore him. They won't change until they miss the train a few times due to not hearing about a platform change of whatever.

So the issue could have been not so much that they didn't thank him, but that they weren't even listening, in which case it would have been a bit strange for them to thank him.

But with that said, I don't think a round of applause or an out-loud thank-you is needed. Eye contact and a bit of a nod would do, and you can't have seen whether everyone did that. (Maybe he was sight-impaired, but not everyone will notice that.) In similar situations I don't think I would do more than that, but it would depend on the urgency of the message, the impact on me and the rest of the room, and probably a dozen other things.

If he had done this personally for me, yes I would have thanked him.

Otherwise no as he did the job he was being paid to do.

If I’d just found out my train had been cancelled and I’d need a rail replacement bus, I wouldn’t be feeling particularly thankful tbh. I might have said thank you if I’d passed him, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to approach him or call out ‘thank you’ in the crowd. It’s not like he’s done a favour or gone above or beyond.

Thank you. At last, a well reasoned thoughtful non accusatory post. It probably is ' no biggie' and I definitely have too much time on my hands at present due to waiting a long time for my train. But all that makes sense. I did acknowledge that we don't thank airline staff for the safety demo so wasn't sure if I expect too much in the way of manners but it felt right at the time to say thank you

Presumably when you thanked him the other people thought, great she’s done it on our behalf. It would be a bit silly for 20 people all to murmur their individual thanks.

Yes. That's also probably true

He might have been waiting awkwardly in case anyone had questions - probably quite used to not being thanked 😊

It was very nice of you to want to thank him OP and I'm sure he appreciated it but he probably wasn't expecting it.

I'm not sure how I'd have reacted in this situation as it's been a while since I was frequent train traveller. That said I've found travelling on trains and busses to be a very insular experience, it's often not the nicest environment and you don't always want to engage with it. This does change how you respond and interact with other people.

I think I agree with this. I would feel a bit odd shouting thank you at him from the other end of the waiting room, but if he were still at the door when I got to it on my way to the replacement bus I'd very probably say thank you as I passed him.

I've never had anyone come into a waiting room to announce bad news, but have had staff make announcements to a crowd of people on a concourse or platform. The crowd of people has never chorused/shouted "thank you" at the end, and I've never heard individuals in the crowd shout thank you, but as people start walking after the announcement, those who pass close to the announcer often say a quiet thank you to him

I wouldn't have said thank you in this situation either - it's not as though he'd come to tell anyone individually, he was just making a general announcement to the room.

If I was booking a ticket at the desk and he'd said "your train has been cancelled but there's a bus coming in x minutes" then it would be different, of course.

I also suspect most people wouldn't have been feeling especially thankful to find out their train had just been cancelled, though.

So people who are doing the job he was they are being paid to do don't deserve any thanks?
Never?
Hmmmm......