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Desk of Commendations

Giving proper recognition to overlooked kindnesses

Department of Small Matters · Guidance to the Public

The Department is not solely an office of complaint. A great deal of what it receives is good.

The Short Answer

A commendation is a formal record of a kindness, a good deed, an effort, or an act of restraint that would otherwise pass unnoticed.

It is filed in the same manner as any other matter and returned as a certificate with the same formal place upon the record. The Department draws no distinction of importance between a grievance and a commendation.

Illustrative commendations

The following prepared examples illustrate the matters suited to the Desk of Commendations.

  • A stranger who said nothing about the obvious thing.
  • The colleague who quietly redid the work without mentioning it.
  • A neighbour who took in the bins without being asked, twice.
  • The message composed in full, considered, and then not sent.
  • A person who held a door for longer than was strictly convenient.
  • The correction withheld, in the interest of the afternoon.

Acts of restraint

The Department takes a particular interest in restraint, because it is the least visible of the virtues. A thing that did not happen leaves no evidence, receives no thanks, and is known only to the person who declined to do it.

Such matters belong at this desk and are recorded in the ordinary way. A claimant may also commend their own restraint.

Why the Department keeps this desk

An office that received only grievances would, in short order, become an ornate complaint service. That is not the institution. The Department exists to record what ordinary life leaves unrecorded, and a good deal of what ordinary life leaves unrecorded is decent.

Onward Enquiries

An institution of Everyday Arc