Granted, life's struggles lately have left me rather irritable and short-tempered, but inconsiderate people are really tickin' me off.
I got double fingers today from an old man who thought I made him wait two second too long as I pulled out from my parking spot. He would not have had to wait those two seconds if he hadn't been speeding through the parking lot in the first place and got up to where I was much faster than I'd anticipated. In any case, giving me the finger - from both hands - did not seem to be a reasonable response.
Immediately after that fun experience, I went to a shipping store to make some copies only to find that two out of four machines were out of order and one of the working machines was color copies only. A self-absorbed guy took his time making his copies at the one and only working black & white copier while three people waited to use the machine. He had his papers spread out and carefully read each document before deciding whether he needed to make a copy of it. If he did, he then removed the staple and selected the pages to copy. Once the copies were made, he re-stapled the originals and also stapled the copies together before reading the next document....
....while the rest of us waited with all our papers unstapled and ready to copy. I finally asked him how much longer it would be and he claimed to only have a few more copies to make. When he finished, he refused to use his self-service key to close out his copy transaction so that I could get started, even after I clarified that I did not need him to move from the counter space where he was organizing his material. I finally had to ask the store clerk to come over and close out his order, over his objections, so that I could do my copies. I had my 28 copies made and was ready to pay for them before he even finished putting his wallet away at the register. I got out of the way of the next customers while I organized and stapled all my originals and copies back together.
Why is it so incredibly difficult to get people to consider the impact of their actions on others? Everyone is so self-absorbed and selfish that expecting them to be nice, helpful, or at least not a total jerk to others is like asking them to give you a kidney.
Even people in the service industry no longer bother with decent customer service. At the closest grocery store to my new home, the checkers visit with the customers they know in their lines. They do this even when that person is several places back in line and totally ignore the customer whose groceries are being rung up. "Hello? If you want my money, you'd better tear yourself away from chatting up your friend and ask me for it. Nicely. And then don't friggin' say, 'Thanks for your support' at the end of a transaction where you completely ignored me."
I told you I was grouchy, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable to ask people to pull their heads outta their iPhones or butts or wherever they are, and act like decent human beings!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
Yup. They do. Friendly, helpful customer service and friendly, neighborly people are so rare that I find myself thanking an individual profusely for extending a simple courtesy once the norm. Sometimes I respond with such ire to a rude individual that the next time I stand for peace, I feel like a hypocrite for not honoring my values, and boy do I feel like a hypocrite, because my temper can flare!
Add to that the clod who tries to cut into the line, or the folks who jog two or three across and don't leave room for you coming from the other direction.....
I think I'll lecture my grandchildren about manners next time I visit. I don't want this coming from my genes!
Uh-oh, I've been that person with the many pages and need many copies of the original. They were legal documents and the original had to be separate from the copies cause it had to go to the lawyers/court. Then the copies had to go to the right people. but I don't think too many people wer behind me that day!
I have found some customer service people to be great and others just taking their sweet time to do whatever you need.
But the two fingers from the old guy in the parking lot--that's just wrong. He was lucky you didn't just pull back in the parking space and go back into the store ... :) I just think these things, I never really do them!
peace,
shamba
LOL I would have gotten into some faces myself. I say fuck rude people. Especially grandpa who couldn't wait for your parking space. They piss me off. Seriously. Where they not there in kindergarten the day they talked about common courtesy and the golden rule???
Oh, I am sooooo with you!
Waited for like, ten minutes for petrol yesterday while some prick took his time deciding which chocolate bar to buy in the petrol station store.
I can just visualise it now: "Snickers or Mars? Snickers or Mars....hmmmm...oh, maybe a coconut rough today? Naaaah...I don't really like coconut rough. And Snickers are my favorite...but I always buy Snickers! I know! I'll buy...both! YEAH! BOTH!
Doesn't it make you grumpy! And people like that are always the first ones to whinge the first time anyone else takes a bit of time over anything....grrr...Now I'm grumpy too!
Take it easy. Sure, there might be a prick born every minute, but they're in the minority...thank goodness!
Kathryn - same here with the nice folks! I do try to restrain myself when dealing with the super-rude, mostly because I don't really like confrontation and because I've seen minor incidents escalate into violence rapidly. That was one benefit of taking krav maga classes a while back - the best initial defense is trying to defuse a potentially violent situation if possible by calming someone else down.
Farmgal - yep, rudeness surrounds us. Good luck with your grandkiddies; maybe they'll learn the lessons we were taught as kids!
Shamba - I understand the need to keep papers in order, and his were legal docs from what I could see. However, paperclips or turning pages crossways can keep things orderly until copies are complete. And he did actually have the originals and copies in two separate piles; he just insisted on doing the stapling then.
Actually, the old geezer in the parking lot was exiting, as was I. He was just ticked off that he had to pause his speeding arse down while I shifted into drive as fast as I could after backing out of my spot.
Rob - naw, these people were probably the same ones that stole my cookies in kindergarden, or dumped the Kool-aid over them.
Daharja - Oh yeah, been there for that, too! Makes me want to walk up to the person and ask, "What the heck were you thinking?" But, I figure if I do that, their response would be they weren't thinkin' nuthin' and/or they'd punch me in the face.
One of those days huh?
Try our kindy where I was relieving this morning. Usually it is the best place with manners etc but something definitely was up this morning and I have to admit I was glad to get them outside where violent exercise rules. They were better after that - amazing what a bit of activity will achieve :)
Maybe we should send all rude adults out to do some exercise too!
viv in nz
Viv - I had to laugh when I read your comment. You see, Polie (the dog) gets really wound up at times and we have to take him outside to let him run off the excess energy. It often turns out that he needs to poop but runs around like crazy first.
So.....maybe we need to feed rude people some peaches and then make them run around in circles until they poop. Could be they're just grouchy because they're constipated! ;-)
Sorry for your bad day.
As for the guy at the copy center, he sounds like either a jerk or perhaps someone with other issues, you know like the person standing in front of the egg display at the grocery opening each carton and handling each egg compulsively.
But I'm with Shamba - I've been there doing legal papers and turning over corners or cross-stacking doesn't do it. It's ridiculously anal at times. Mostly though I just drop off the copies so I don't have to do it.
Susan - hm, then I don't know what the solution is for people with lots of legal copying to do. Go to a bigger copy store? Drop it off like you do? I need to explore this area more and find other copying options than a store that lets 50% of their machines sit "out of order."
At one local grocery store that I DO NOT frequent anymore they have all teenyboppers checking in late afternoon/evenings hours...one time the clerk was actually chatting on her cell while ringing up orders!!! I requested she hang up to do mine and was she ever peeved....so the next morning the manager got a phone call....handy that they wear name badges there!
I'm usually a pretty mellow person but I just can't abide bad manners...as a nurse the residents on my hall soon learned please and thank you...when started there some actually snapped their fingers at the aides like they were some kind of servants...not happening! Happy to report my efforts to instill manners in my children as still in effect...and I get thank you notes from the grands,too!!!!! DEE
Diana - oh yeah, that servant class attitude really rubs me the wrong way. Since I'm willing to do menial jobs, both as a volunteer or for trade, I've been on the receiving end of that a few times. I've had to set a few people straight that just because I'm mopping the floor doesn't mean I'm uneducated or an idiot. Shocked a couple people actually when I disabused them of their impression that I must not be well-educated since I was willing to do grunt work.
Ahem, excuse me, college degree here - with honors, successful past career including working in the nation's capital (although I'm not sure I'd brag about that anymore!). I could freelance as much as I wanted if I chose to because there are those who recognize my abilities and value my work. I choose instead to spend my time making a home with and for my family with a DIY and from-scratch attitude.
The other day my husband was at a stop light. There were two cars in front of him. The first one at the light was a woman who was chatting on her cellphone. The light turned green, and they waited. She chatted on her phone. The guy behind her tapped his horn, lightly. Nothing. So, he tapped his horn, again, less lightly, but still trying to just get her attention so she'd go forward. Nothing. He tapped his horn a third time, a little more aggressively, but still not like blaring the horn. She looked up, saw the light was green, and as she pulled away from the line, flipped the guy off. She sat there for a minutes, which at a green light is a VERY long time, especially when the lights only stay green for two minutes. She sat there, and then, when she pulled out, she was totally, over-the-top rude.
Totally uncalled for. She was completely in the wrong, and should have been profusely apologizing instead of offering him "half" a peace sign.
Sheesh! Some people.
Probably because I'm confrontational to rude people: if I had gotten flipped off by the guy waiting for the parking space, I would have pulled back into my spot. Got out of the car, leaned on the trunk, crossed my arms and stuck my tongue out at him. I would have replied, "Just for that, you're not getting this spot. You know what you did and I am not rewarding that behavior!" The jerk could then go on to search for another parking spot.
I'm so with you! This has been my biggest complaint for the last 5 years. Simple, common decency seems to be gone. Why can't people think of others? I often feel like I'm the only one who cares about other people.
Post a Comment