Could you do me a favor?

It has always bothered me when people ask, “Can I ask you a question?” First of all, you just DID ask me a question. Second, I’m obviously not going to say no. Never in my life have I heard the following conversation:

“Can I ask you a question?”

“No.”

Although, now that I mention it, maybe I should try it out just to see what the reaction would be.

Nevertheless, no other pre-question question bothers me more than when people ask, “Could you do me a favor?”

Now, let me make myself clear. More often than not I am MORE than happy to help out a friend. Normally when people ask me in a straightforward way what they need help with, I immediately say yes unless I am in the middle of something.

But nothing makes me want to do someone a favor LESS than when that person asks me, “Could you do me a favor?”

Why?

Because I feel like they are trapping me into doing said favor.

This is because when someone asks this question, they are forcing you to swear into doing something before you even know what they want you to do. I do not want to back out once I committed and told them I would. And it is hard to not feel like a terrible person when you say no before you even know what they are asking.

After all, the term “favor” is entirely ambiguous. I might have time and/or be willing to do one favor but not another.

Regardless, whenever someone asks me to do him or her a favor, I say yes. I am neither clever enough to avoid the question nor do I have the heart to say no.

I then do the favor no matter how inconvenient it may be.

But there is a vast difference between how I respond to the favors that were preceded with a question and the ones that are asked in a straightforward manner.

The difference is I am bitter and slightly resentful when doing the favor for the person who asks, “Could you do me a favor?”

So… moral of the story? Be straightforward. Trapping people to get what you want from them is pretty annoying to say the least.