No Problem

“Thank you so much for your help.”

“Not a problem”
“Thanks for doing that, I really appreciate it”
“Hey, no problem”
OK, so I guess the problem’s mine

…or at least it qualifies as a pet peeve...but whatever happened to “You’re welcome?” I’ll grant you that a, “no problem” is possibly marginally nicer than a hearty, “whatever,”…but not by too much.

When someone has helped me, the appreciation I express is genuine. Sometimes my “thank you” isn’t enough to express the depth of my gratitude - and so I’ll make an extra effort to let the other person know that I’m very thankful for their assistance. In days gone by, the reply might have been, “my pleasure” (as in, “it was my pleasure to help you”) or “You’re welcome (to the help).

These days the reply simply implies that I’m not a problem (yet) but somehow it kinda leaves me feeling cold and wondering if I should replace my thanks with something else. Perhaps something along this line:

Me: (After asking for assistance with something) “So, was that a problem for you?”

Them: “Hey, no problem”

Yeah, that kinda works……….