What Happened to Common Sense?

To me it seems that the number of interactions I am having with people who possess common sense is continually decreasing. Some experiences of late:

• I am managing the clinic I work at while the real manager is on maternity leave. It's a small clinic, so right now, there are only 4 employees. Me, two techs, and a social worker. I get to work bright and early one morning (5:45 a.m.) and strangely, I am alone. I think oh... my coworkers must be running a little late this morning, so I go about starting to set up for the day and I give both of the techs a call. Neither one answers. At 6:00, the first patient gets there. I can't do anything because there has to be at least two employees present in order to do any patient care. I decide to check the company voice mail while I wait. There are two messages. One from each tech saying that he is too sick to come to work today. Lack of common sense: don't call in sick to an answering machine. Call in sick to a real person (preferably the person who is currently in charge) so that they can find someone to cover your shift.

• Two weeks later, after I had given explicit instructions to call my cell phone directly if they couldn't make it to work for any reason, it happened again. I arrived at work and I was alone. Again I tried to call both of them repeatedly. No answer. I called another clinic in Provo and they sent me a tech. Two hours later, one of the techs calls me and tells me that he had sent the other tech a text message telling him that he was sick and couldn't come to work. About a half hour later, the other tech calls and says that he forgot to turn on his cell phone/alarm clock last night. He never got the text from the other employee and didn't wake up on time. Lack of common sense: don't call in sick by texting your fellow tech. Call in sick to the person in charge. Make sure your alarm clock is turned on before you go to bed.

• I went to Dillard's to get my sister a birthday present. I found a shirt that I thought she would like, but you never know, so I asked the cashier to print me a gift receipt. She just looked at me blankly and says "I don't know how." Lack of common sense: If you work at a store in customer service, help the customer. If you don't know how to help, find someone who does. So I say, "Can you find someone who does know how?" She looks at me and says, "Yeah, I guess." She makes a phone call and within about 30 seconds, I have my gift receipt.

• One night, my husband and I decide to grab an unhealthy meal of burgers, fries, and ice cream. We go to this local place and order to go. This place usually takes about 15 min to get your food out to you. The girl behind the counter takes our order then immediately makes our ice cream cones and lets them sit out on the counter and melt while our food is cooking. Lack of common sense: If it has potential to melt, don't prepare it first, prepare it last.

• This happened a few years ago, but I think it's my favorite experience with the lack of common sense. I was living in Quito, Ecuador volunteering in orphanages. I lived with a bunch of girls who were doing the same thing. I was in charge of doing all the shopping for the house. I had just gone to the produce stand and bought a bunch of food. I was in the process of washing it with diluted bleach (we didn't want to get parasites). One girl came in and offered to help me. I was glad to have some help until she asked this question... "So, like do we wash the fruit or dry it first?" I just looked at her. I couldn't continue the interaction. I had to leave the room.

Seriously, what happened to common sense? I know it's out there somewhere...