do you correct the little errors you see....?

Question

a sign on the grocery store shelf has fallen down, do you pick it up and replace it? an email is sent to you, do you correct the misspellings before you forward it on? a rug in an office hallway is crooked or a corner is flipped up, do you try to fix it?

does it matter if anyone's watching?

details, details..

we should start a society :)

Answer 1

If I am in a store and product has fallen down, I will put it back. No sense leaving it there for someone to trip and get hurt. I used to work retail so I picked this up as habit, but also do it out of courtesy for the poor souls that work retail, 'cause I've been there. I'm not a total ocd. I don't bother with correcting misspellings (not even my own sometimes) but I do fix pictures that are hanging crooked. This comes from working in layout at a sign manufacturing company. I have an eye for straight lines. So most of my habits are learned from work. As far as anyone watching, I don't care. I am one of very few people who don't even bother to look to see if anyone saw me hit my head and I don't look around to see who was watching when trip or fall or am otherwise graceless and clumsy. But when a chalkboard has been erased and there are a few marks that escaped the eraser, I WILL finish them off! And I peel the labels off of beer bottles, and I have to throw out all the little order slips that fall out of magazines beofre I can continue reading.

Answer 2

It really depends what the little error is. If the rug that is flipped up presents a safety hazard, then I will definitely fix it. Anything related to a safety issue, I will try to correct, or at least point it out to somebody who can correct it.

I just did an example on myself now. I just had to look up the word "definitely" because I wasn't sure how it was spelled correctly. I tend to be a stickler for my spelling because I don't want to come off as uneducated or sloppy. So in that respect, I try to correct those type of little errors.

Most other things, I generally ignore. Nothing is perfect in this world. If a sign is crooked, I'll leave it be. I know I could fix it, and it usually crosses my mind to do so, but I've learned to live with imperfection. I'm better at letting things go, the older I become. It's more liberating than trying to be a perfectionist.

Answer 3

Yes, I do a lot of those things, from picking up shelf signs from the store that have fallen down, to picking up stuff people drop and leave on the floor, I make sure to put it back in their right space if it's nearby, but as far as correcting the misspelling of emails before sending back my reply, even though it has crossed my mind, I haven't really done that, although I do correct the ones that are FWD to others, like the ones with the big letters or the paragraphs that are not too long. If I see something out of place and I know where it belongs, I tend to put it back in its own place. No, it really doesn't matter if anyone is watching. I don't see anything wrong with doing that and it doesn't embarrass me to be the one to fix it, or put it back where it belongs.

Answer 4

I'll join this club in a heartbeat! & no, it doesn't mean OCD, (not necessarily!) When people leave their junk mail all over the lobby floor, I gather it up & put it in the dumpster. If they leave the common storage door unlocked, I lock it. If a rug is crooked in a public place, I'll straighten it. Can't think how many times I've neatly folded clothes in a store after a sale, when everyone has messed them up, or the SHOES. That's the worst, where they replace the left shoe size whatever, but the right shoe is missing. The fascinating thing is that I'm not quite that way in my own place! I still haven't straightened the pictures on my walls from the last earthquake! Maybe--it's because I know I can do this stuff at home when I have the time? Who knows? I believe that THOUGHTFUL people do this; it's not a phobia or fixation--it's just NICE.

Answer 5

My people! :D

Having worked through school in retail, I can't NOT straighten things up in stores when I'm shopping. Sometimes if the display looks really nice and I take an item from the front, I'll move the items up so that there's no empty space. Once when I received a "love" letter from a boy in high school, I corrected all the misspellings and grammatical errors. I didn't give it back to him or anything, but it made ME feel better to do it. I couldn't make it to the first date because of it (which begs the question, why was he sending love letters before the first date?).

What's sad is that to look at my classroom or my purse, you'd never know I was anal about anything.

Answer 6

The things I "correct" are just simple courtesies in my opinion.If I'm in a store and I see a piece of merchandise on the floor I pick it up and place it back on the shelf.This item was left there by a careless shopper not the staff.I think it is helping to keep the item from being waled on ,kicked about and in general damaged due to someone else's carelessnes.It helps to keep costs down.If I see a rug that has the edge rolled up I straighten it up to prevent someone tripping on it. If I see shopping carts in the parking lot I will usually replace it in the cart rack.How irritating is it to have a parking place taken up by a cart left behind or have someone push their cart into your car. I think most of us try to "fix" these little issues and save ourselves or someone else a headache. I don't do it for recognition it's just an easy way to make life a little nicer.Take care.

Answer 7

Yes I am a fixer upper...
If a sign falls, I pick it up, even though I am not the one to knock it down...
If an email is messed up, I fix it before I send it out...
I always fix messed up rugs so no one will trip over them...
I don't care if anyone is watching, I don't do it for recognition...

Today at my grocery store, a lady bumped into the meat counter and several packages of ham fell on the floor that had been on the shelf...
Oddly enough, she looked around to see if anyone saw her, and then she walked away, leaving them on the floor...
She didn't see me standing over by the produce and I saw her...
I walked over to the meat counter and picked up around 6 packages of ham and placed them exactly where they fell from...
Now this sucked cause I saw how lazy she was, and it hurt me to do this cause I have back problems...
I did it anyway...
I got no thanks from anyone and I don't know if anyone saw me or not..
I did what was right just the same...

Answer 8

Ha ha. Yes, I actually do. And I don't care if anyone's watching. I always pick up items that have fallen in the stores, and I have to straighten pictures that are just a tad crooked. If my husband is typing something, I have to ask him if I can make a few corrections on his spelling before he posts it or sends it. He appreciates it, though! If he didn't want me to I wouldn't do it. It's just a habit I have. But then our car and my purse is always a mess. I never understood that!

Answer 9

A sign has fallen down, yes i replace it.
The email has misspellings, yes i correct them before forwarding it.
The rug is crooked, yes i try to fix it.
It doesn't matter if anyone is watching or not, i still do these things, and ppl think it's so weird...
Why do we do these things???

Answer 10

I do most of these things, not the email thing though. I'm very tempted, but I sort of feel it is not mine to change, that was how someone else put it and it isn't my place to think I'm better then them. The other things are different.

Another example might be that I might see a picture hung at an angle in someones house. I certainly won't fix it with them watching, it would be rude.