How is saying "No problem" rude and condescending?

[Anonymous]

I work in a senior living community taking care of the elderly.
Today I was a helping this old man up his chair and when he said "thank you" I said "You're welcome", then he points at me while looking at an old lady and says "see, she says 'you're welcome'!" Then the lady goes on to say that he hates it when people say "no problem" instead, because it is rude and condescending.
I thought about it for a while but didn't seemed to understand why. All I came up with was maybe the other person is saying it's not a problem like if it were? I don't know...
Can anyone explain?

[prog91]

I can see it. Kudos to you for trying to understand how he sees it, most people would say "it's NOT condescending", like it's a fact. I know someone who says "no problem" pretty much all the time. It seems like such a small thing, like what's the big deal, but at closer look, it's quite different. "No problem" is kind of like the "chill" (for lack of a better term) way of saying "you're welcome". "You're welcome" has a much nicer to ring to it and it's sincere in its message, it's the nicest, purest way of saying "I did something nice for you". "No problem" can be perceived as... not fully genuine. It's too easy to just say "you're welcome", why change it every time? The phrase itself sounds guarded, as if the person saying it doesn't want to fully give their vulnerability to the other person. From my experiences, "no problem" users tend to have lower confidence than people who use "you're welcome". It's almost like they want to come off as "hip" and "cool", because "you're welcome" sounds too nice. Keep in mind, none of this is fact, but I used to use "no problem" all the time in high school and I had no confidence, same with my friend, who still uses it. Just an observation, but it's my take on it.

[Asker]

Thank you so much for this answer :) I guess I was somewhat right lol just needed to understand it more. I guess that's why the lady said "she says you're welcome because she has manners and her mother raised her right" lol.

[BellePepper]

Old people can be pedantic. Some people get bent out of shape becuase they like to be literal. Andy Rooney did an opinion piece about it and got people everywhere furious becuase they feel like "you're welcome" is the only acceptable answer from service people after being thanked.

[UberTroll]

"No problem" is kind of a new way of saying "you're welcome" and sometimes elderly people get stuck in their old ways so to him anything besides "you're welcome" probably sounds rude. To most people though, they mean the same thing.