In the spirit of Christmas I have come up with an idea to improve the life of the poor travel editor.
What a job! It would be like being Prince Harry or Tina Onassis, without the financial prospects or even the holidays. You’d hardly ever travel – far too much to do in London, attending absurd awards ceremonies and re-writing articles by illiterate celebrities.
Your desk and person are in a permanent state of siege, from people eager to sit next to you and wheedle their way into your affection. Of course they aren’t real friends. Most of them probably hate you. But they all want something, and you know what it is.
The email inbox fills faster than you can hit the delete button. Invitations and suggestions flood in from admirers contriving ever more ingenious ways to ingratiate themselves. You’d like to ignore them, but you can’t, because they’ll only send more, in case the first one didn’t ‘get through’.
My idea to improve the travel editor’s lot is this. When someone sends an invitation or a proposal that you wish to decline or reject, send an automated response of two words. No thanks.
And when someone sends a suggestion that sounds good, don’t bother to answer. Just let them get on with it.
I have sent this suggestion in an email to all the travel editors I know, and I haven’t had a single ‘No thanks’ response.
So that’s settled. No answer means yes.