People who just don't get it. (A One Minute Rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

I was at the check out at the local Mega-lo-Mart ** TM ** listening to the cashier and the bagger (both housewives, like me.) just bitch bitch bitch about how they had to work overtime the day before and how it just screwed up their …well…existence.

Listening, it didn’t take all of thirty seconds to realize that these two women had to *work a total of fifteen minutes of over time. * I stood there, basically ignored while they scanned my very large cartload of food, fuming (not at being ignored, per se.)
[ul]
[li]Do you know what I would give to have the chance to work outside the home, to have a conversation with an adult and, gasp, earn money? [/li]
[li]Do you know what I give to earn over time pay - no matter how minute in porportion - if I could work outside the home?[/li]
[li]And this fifteen minutes delay (no child care issues were cited by either bitchee) screws your entire life how?[/li][/ul]

When they came back to the present and it was time for the money transaction I said sweetly, " It could always be worse, you could be a woman in Afghanistan."

And these to fucknuts did not grasp what I meant by that. You know, insane religous nut persecution the women and being bombed from above by some country who’s teenagers spend more money on CD’s than a woman has earned for an entire year ( because they are not allowed to work.) Living in constant fear of death and religious/sexual discrimination, starvation and a host of other ugly things and you stupid selfish self centered whores are pissing and moaning about a quarter of an hour you were delayed your minivan ride back to your house to sit your fat ass on the couch to watch Entertainment Tonight because it was really busy? What a fucking trauma it must have been for you. Please, I beg you, go fuck yourself.
I thank you.

2

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest *
**I was at the check out at the local Mega-lo-Mart ** TM ** listening to the cashier and the bagger (both housewives, like me.) just bitch bitch bitch about how they had to work overtime the day before and how it just screwed up their …well…existence.

Listening, it didn’t take all of thirty seconds to realize that these two women had to *work a total of fifteen minutes of over time. * I stood there, basically ignored while they scanned my very large cartload of food, fuming (not at being ignored, per se.)
[list]
[li]Do you know what I would give to have the chance to work outside the home, to have a conversation with an adult. **[/li][/QUOTE]

While maybe not typical, these two are not at all uncommon in the workplace. Do you still think that working outside the home would put you into conversation with “an adult.”

3

Well, I would like to mildly point out that just because women are hideously persecuted in Afghanistan doesn’t make it not suck when you have to work unexpected overtime.

I mean, there are lots of little things in life that piss me off on a regular basis. I realize that there are a lot of people who have it a lot worse off than I do, but there’s still a lot of little things that piss me off. Mass injustice in the world is a heavy and depressing concept, but doesn’t do much to alleviate my irritation at the guy who changed lanes in front of me without using his turn signal, if you see what I’m saying.

I also don’t really understand what makes these two people particularly self-centered. Is it because they were chatting with each other while in the workplace? Frankly, I appreciate it when the checker at the grocery store doesn’t bother to make small talk with me, because I don’t really like making small talk with total strangers. What’s the big deal that they were complaining about overtime? They were scanning your groceries, right? It’s not like they were standing there chatting instead of doing their jobs.

I suppose I just don’t really see the point of this rant.

4

I think Shirley’s rant was not about them chatting while checking her out, but rather that they were complaining about something as trivial (in my mind) as fifteeen minutes of overtime, for which they were getting paid anyways. 15 minutes is really nothing. It’s not like they had to stay a couple of hours. It is annoying to listen to people complain about a couple of minutes of “lost time”.

I once had a woman stand behind me at a register while the sales associate got a manager. We were standing there waiting for 90 seconds, 2 minutes at most. The manager arrives, and the women behind me starts fuming about the wait. As I grab my bag of purchases and go to leave, I say, “Yeah, I can’t believe we had to wait two whole minutes!” To which she agreed, obviously being too self-absorbed to notice my sarcasm. Some people just need to get over themselves.

Hey, Shirley said it was a 1-minute rant in the title. Nothing heavy. I like the Afghanistan hyperbole, too.

5

Well, I think we should just get rid of the Pit completely. Because obviously, nothing anybody here has to complain about could possibly be as bad as being a woman in Afghanistan.

:rolleyes:

Chill out and have a drink or something, Shirley.

6

OH, I am so with you on this.

15 minutes of paid overtime??? and that gets gripes??? Cry me a river - I’ve had the non paid overtime ('cause I was salaried not hourly) w/child care issues, the paid overtime for double shifts (sorry, but after about 14 hours of being on duty I don’t give a shit how much I’m being paid, I want to go home). I’ve gotten snowed in at work, resulting in being on duty for (counting, carry the 2,) 32 hour shift. I got a whopping extra 2 days off for that one.

15 minutes indeed. Harumph.

7

Well, yesterday, I had to do a price check, and as I walked back, the couple in line behind the customer started making faces and huffing. I said, in a very sweet voice,“The more you complain, the longer I’ll take!”

It took probably one minute. Exactly. I came back, smiled very sweetly, and said, “There now, that wasn’t so bad, was it!”

The whole time I’m ringing these people up-after finishing with the first customer, they’re making faces, slamming things onto the counter, the woman started swearing and grunting because she couldn’t locate her credit card. Heh. And as they left, I said, VERY sweetly, “Have a nice day!”

If looks could kill…ho boy!

What can they do-call the manager and say I was nice to them?

:smiley:

I agree, fifteen minutes is nothing. The only time I get mad, however, is when a manager just assumes I can stay. Like when the upfront wench says to me about waiting for the next person. I had happened to have plans, and I told her so, and got a lecture on how I couldn’t always leave when I was scheduled to.

I wanted to say to her, “You know, Robin, if you had come up to me, and said very nicely, ‘Kathi, we’re really busy, would you mind staying an extra fifteen minutes?’ I would have done so gladly. But, when you come up to me and state in a very snotty tone about how I am to cover for YOU not having enough people on hand, then the answer is no. Don’t just assume I can stay-sometimes I actually-gasp!-have plans! Wow!
So just ask next time. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stay. But if you arrogantly act as though I’m around at your beck and call, I will leave on the dot, even if I have all the time in the world.”

Does that make sense?

8

About that “fifteen minutes” being nothing of concern…

I ride commuter train to and from work. It comes and goes on a particular schedule, whether I’m on it or not. When I was in my old department at work I was forced by a Manager-From-Hell to work a schedule where a five minute delay getting my ass out the door and across the street to the train station could, indeed, make my an hour and a half late getting home, because an hour and a half was how long I’d have to wait if I missed “my” train.

So, for some people, even a short time of overtime IS a serious issue.

Then again, that was part of the drawbacks to having that job. I have a different job now, on a different schedule, so those short delays usually result in just a half an hour delay. And managment is much more reasonable - I usually get warning on overtime, and the unexpected overtime is pretty rare so I can live with it.

9

I’m a cashier at a grocery store. (whoopty-doo.) I’m not supposed to leave my register until my relief shows up. There are some people at my store who are chronically 10 or 15 minutes late–when they bother to show up at all. And yes, 15 minutes DOES matter, especially when it means missing my bus home. Or, when I get a ride, causing said ride to sit outside for 15 minutes, wondering where the hell I am.

I guess it’s the principle of the thing. I had the courtesy to show up on time, so I’d like to get off work on time. And if they’d like me to stay, they can ASK, not assume.

10

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge… what if she had children to pick up? An appointment to keep? 15 minutes of overtime is nothing when you don’t have to be anywhere straight after work. And as a non-driver, I fully sympathise with anyone who has to take public transport or rely on someone else to pick them up, because even a short delay can be a real hassle. Like Broomstick, I used to have an hour and 15 minutes wait between buses - and it was in an unpleasant area with little to see and do and much to fear. I would have been furious if I’d been delayed 15 minutes.

Sorry, Shirley, but I’m not with you on the first part of that rant.

11

One of my favorite jokes I told to amuse myself when I was in the Army (for six years) was as follows:

Co-workers would be complaining about something new, perhaps the ten- to twelve-hour days we had to put in, or working on Christmas again or having just twenty-four hours warning before deploying to a foreign country…and I’d chirp “Yeah, but the overtime’s great!”

See, the joke is that we didn’t get paid overtime.