What little things set you off?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
101

[QUOTE=Sierra Indigo]
Do you have a sign clearly stating you have no Wiis or what date you expect to have the Wiis in? If so, carry on and I agree with you completely.

HOWEVER - if there’s no sign saying there’s no Wiis, it’s not unreasonable that the consumers are getting upset. When I go into an electronics/games store (EB, which is where most of my money goes, to be specific), if there’s a box on the shelf and it’s not on the “coming soon” shelf, I’d expect there to be at least one in stock. The boxes are there to display what is available. Posters and “coming soon” shelves are to display what could be, might be or soon will be available.

My local EB has a sign on their Wii boxes saying when they expect them to be in again and offering a pre-order. Not a problem with that. But I have been looking for a Wii. Places with no boxes, or signs - I know they have no Wii, I don’t need to go in there, it’s all good. Places with Wii boxes prominently on display right next to the Wii games, I think “Mmm. They might have a Wii”. I go in, I get told “No, we’re out of stock. Would you like xxxxxx?”. It feels a bit like baiting and I can see how people who’ve been looking for a wii might feel a little unhappy about that.
[/QUOTE]

We are required, at all times, to display system prices on display boxes on top of shelving units. For all systems, in-stock, out-of-stock, used, refurbished, and otherwise. I have nothing to do with this. It’s a corporate decision, and I am a wage slave.

The part that upsets me isn’t people asking. They can ask until they’re blue in the face. They do. What pisses me off is people thinking that I’m trying to “mess with them.” Why would I do that? Why would I put up the boxes just to screw with people? What would make you think I have anything to do with store displays in the first place? Yeah, I basically just sit up all night, cackling madly, coming up with ways to ruin your day.

It’s mostly the issue of “you work here, which means everything the company does is also your fault.”

102

[QUOTE=Long Time Lurker]
Having trouble picturing this one. If you’re going to make a right turn and there are pedestrians blocking your path, aren’t they crossing, as they’re supposed to, at a walk sign?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but here in LA, anyway, your right to enter the intersection ends when the little white walking dude is replaced by the orange hand. But folks just continue on as if nothing had happened. They only stop entering the intersection when the light itself goes yellow.

103

[QUOTE=Long Time Lurker]
Thanks for the replies.

No right turn on red in NYC, so we don’t have the same issue. Cars turning right have to wait for the rush of pedestrians to get across and then slip through the cracks or wait for the yellow light.

I can’t get too worked up over this. I view the flashing light while walking the same way I view a yellow light while driving. Hurry up if you’re close, stop if you’re far.
[/QUOTE]
Has it ever occurred to you that LA IS NOT New York? You folks do plenty of strange and bizarre things that I would never think of doing, like eating in diners that you know will give you food poisoning. And not having right on red? That’s just primitive. As far as crosswalks, your laws are the same as ours. When it goes orange, that means Don’t Walk. In fact, until we decided to change to symbols, that is WHAT IT SAID IN THE ORANGE PART. Now, the fact that the NYPD never enforces that in Manhattan is another matter.

104

In fact, my friend from New York was visiting, and she had gone out to have a snack while I was still sleeping in. She was shocked, shocked, I tells ya, when a motorcycle cop gave her a warning about jaywalking. She was all “I guess they don’t have anything better to do” , and I was like “shyeah brah, why do you think I live HERE instead of some east coast hellhole.”

105

[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
I would much rather have one-touch voice mail on my cell phone that can’t be accessed from anywhere else, so there would be no need for passwords.
[/QUOTE]
That may be just a setting. Check with your provider!

Or get checks with a carbonless copy and you are foolproof.

[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat]
It really frosts me when people get annoyed if I pay with a check. When the cashier finishes scanning my groceries, the check is completely filled out except for the amount. I write in the amount and hand her the check. It processes faster than if she had to take my credit card, scan it, print out a receipt for me to sign, get a signature, check the signature, and give me a copy. What is your problem with that?
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know how it works at your grocery store, but here we have our own card reader. I can key my phone number to activate my club discount, swipe my ATM/visa, enter the pin, and be done before the clerk has scanned five items. Then she just has to push total, and wait for the reciept. With a check she has many more steps that she has to perform, even if it completely filled out when she is done scanning the order, so here at least, YOU ARE HOLDING UP THE LINE IF YOU WRITE A CHECK, no matter how good of a boy scout you are. And using a credit card is just as retarded. It’s called a PIN, people.

Well, first of all, you are wrong to write “Check ID” in the signature area. You could and should have your card refused if that is what it says. They ARE supposed to check the signature. They AREN’T supposed to ask you for ID. They always do it the exact wrong way. But just try to explain that to the average chimp that works in retail. :rolleyes: I have even thought about printing out the merchant agreement from my MC so they can read it for their own dumb ass. You aren’t supposed to check my ID because if you are a thief yourself, then will you not only have my credit card info, but my address and DL# as well, and I’ll be set up for a royal screwing. Not that a person with your cranial capacity could do so, but still. You are so busy thinking I am a thief, but it never crosses your mind that there might be two sides to the story, and that not everything that your asshat GED totin’ supervisor at Best Buy told you, is true.

106

[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer]
Are you sure she hasn’t already left voicemails? I know that when I am talking like that to someone, it has become evident that voice mails haven’t been effective.
[/QUOTE]

Well, I work in a juvenile probation office. So, in part, I’m dealing with impatient hormonal teens. The other part are impatient at-wits end parents.

Some leave voicemail, yes. I’m not saying every single one of the 100 odd people I have to deal with on a regular basis do this. As with anything, the majority of our parents and kids don’t cause a problem.

They don’t refuse to leave messages because voicemail is ineffective, they don’t leave messages because their problem is urgent and needs to be taken care of now, and to hell with whatever their probation officer is doing at the time. They are far more important than anyone else on the officer’s caseload. I don’t care if that kid is suicidal/the officer is meeting with the judge etc. My child needs to go to the movies. And I need the answer right now!

God, I wish that was hyperbole.

107

[QUOTE=AndLuna]
I think it’s maybe a linguistics-student thing; I’ve never met another linguist who wasn’t irrationally annoyed by this.
[/QUOTE]

I’m right there with ya! My usual response is the Lowered Eyelids / Raised Eyebrows Of Condescension™ and something like “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was in the middle of my defense; clearly a register change is in order. Can you restate your correction as an alteration to my constraint hierarchy, or suggest a functional projection in accordance with the Minimalist program?”

And then I say, “Bitch, you BEST not be all up in my grill!”

108

[QUOTE=Audrey Levins]
Customers at my bar who reply to my cheery “How are you doing?” with a terse, “Bud Light.”

Not even a “please.” Who are these people that can’t even respond to a simple pleasantry before demanding beer? Where are their mothers? Who raises these people?

And then people wonder why I don’t always greet everyone so damn cheerfully. grrrrrr

[/QUOTE]

There was a time in my life where I’d wholeheartedly agree with you here. But I guess I just don’t anymore. Your cheery welcome is part of your job (there’s a lot more to good bartending than getting drinks, we both know that, right?). The reaction to that welcome should never be taken personally, unless of course it’s a direct threat. The guy’s not your buddy, he doesn’t know you, probably doesn’t want to know you, and he’s just coming in for a beer.

I think your expecting an answer to your greeting is a little self-centered. You don’t know this guy and you don’t know what’s going through his mind. Your mere existence to him is likely peripheral. He could be coming in for a beer to think about how’s he going to tell his wife that he just got fired again. And now he’s got the Smiling Bartender in his face wanting to exchange pleasantries. You just don’t know.

Next time someone comes into your bar and ignores your greeting, consider the possibilities before jumping to a conclusion and judging the person. If you can’t, just say, “Hi, what can I get you?”

109

Just because Mr. Entitled thinks that Audrey Levins is a piece of periphery in his life, not a real live human being, doesn’t make it so.

110

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
Just because Mr. Entitled thinks that Audrey Levins is a piece of periphery in his life, not a real live human being, doesn’t make it so.
[/QUOTE]

There you go, judging the person based on a single sentence. There’s clearly not enough information here to dub the patron “Mr. Entitled.”

Anyway, you can’t take it personally if a complete stranger doesn’t give you the reaction you want, especially if they’re paying your bills (buying beer in your bar).

111

If you want to argue from the inherent impracticality of taking offense at such responses, I’ll stand behind you. But when you’re interacting with customers all day (or all night, whichever the case may be), it does get irritating when people don’t treat you like a human being. Wouldn’t that guy be pissed if the next person he said hello to gave him an order or growled “What do you want?”

112

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
If you want to argue from the inherent impracticality of taking offense at such responses, I’ll stand behind you. But when you’re interacting with customers all day (or all night, whichever the case may be), it does get irritating when people don’t treat you like a human being. Wouldn’t that guy be pissed if the next person he said hello to gave him an order or growled “What do you want?”
[/QUOTE]

I don’t know if he’ll be pissed. In fact, I’d lean towards not. He’d probably welcome the short, terse invitation. It would at least equal his forthcoming reply.

And if you get pissed because customers are rude, and you’re working at a bar – a place where every day people get pissing drunk, then, well, it’s time for a new line of work, isn’t it? Would you give a doctor a free pass if they became squeamish at the site of a nasty fungus?

113

[QUOTE=DudleyGarrett]
And if you get pissed because customers are rude, and you’re working at a bar – a place where every day people get pissing drunk, then, well, it’s time for a new line of work, isn’t it?
[/QUOTE]

The title of the thread refers to “little things that set you off.”

What I described is is a little thing that sets me off.

If it’s time for a “new line of work” every time something at work pisses you off, most of us would be unemployed.

The whole idea that “it’s your job” doesn’t excuse people being rude or me getting irritated with them. I also pay my bills and vacuum my carpet, in spite of the fact that I find both activites highly annoying. Pet peeves are just that. Pet peeves. Mentioning them doesn’t mean I am expecting anyone to solve them.

People are rude. I get it. I am a bartender. I get it.

Can I not be annoyed without also being patronized when I mention my annoyance?

Whether the terse customer at my bar realizes or cares, I am in fact a human being, and while he will get his Bud Light, he doesn’t also have to get all the empathy for his rudeness that Dudley appears to think I am denying him.

114

Co-workers who are slackers

Managers who are oblivious to the slackers

Managers who are slackers

Managers who are clueless

Managers who can’t distinguish between serious problems, minor problems, and things that are not problems at all

Managers who purposely withhold important information pertaining to the work unit

115

People on the street who ask me if I have a cigarette. My standard reply is to say in a haughty voice “Of course not. Do I look stupid?”

116

Cashiers who have to ask “Could you find everything okay?” As if the one person in a thousand who wants help from the cashier is worth asking the other 999 if they need it. Just once I want to say “No, I couldn’t find the rutabagas. But rather than bother someone in produce to help me, I thought I’d get in the checkout line, get everything on the conveyor belt, and then when the poor shmuck behind me has all his stuff on the belt I thought I’d make you make him wait while you phone the manager and have him go find my rutabagas. That way your corporation can justify the big bonus it gave to some halfwit honcho who never sets foot in a grocery store for his brilliant idea to improve customer service by forcing every one of you poor cashiers to ask an asinine question that every single customer is annoyed at answering.”

117

[QUOTE=Licentious Ectomorph]
One thing that makes me irrationally furious is scooping the litter box. I only have two cats, but they seem to produce insane, unnatural amounts of waste. My partner never scoops, ever; somehow it became taken for granted that it’s my job. To make matters worse, there’s something about a freshly-scooped litter box that’s irrisistible to my cats – they make a beeline for it and immediately stink it up again, and it’s so unbearable that I have no choice but to scoop it again right away.
[/QUOTE]

What kind of food do you feed them? Higher-quality food contains less bulk and filler, and therefore produces less poop that’s less smelly. Our old kitty eats only canned food now, and maybe poops once a day.

I can’t stand people who don’t park straight, drive too slow in the left lane, are too stupid to use the you-scan lanes at the store, and generally make me waste my time trying to make up for their stupidity.

118

“Anyone that pays with a check in this day and age. They are always oldsters or deranged looking. And it only seems to dawn on them after the order has been fully checked and bagged that they actually need to get the checkbook out and start filling in things. Look, Henrietta, this is not 1971. Agnew is long gone from the White House. You are not at “Alpha-Beta”. “The Singing Strings” instrumental of “The Look of Love” is not on the PA. You won’t be receiving any “Green Stamps” with your order. Put that goddamn checkbook away and pay with plastic like a normal person.”
This is a gorgeous and flawless piece of prose.

Although occasionally you see a younger person with the checkbook. THAT’s a fucking headscratcher right there.

119

[QUOTE=Caricci]

Although occasionally you see a younger person with the checkbook. THAT’s a fucking headscratcher right there.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve always assumed that’s a case of ‘there’s no money in my bank account right now but I’ve calculated that there will be by the time this cheque hits my account’.

120

[QUOTE=Happy Wanderer]
Has it ever occurred to you that LA IS NOT New York?
[/QUOTE]

It has. You have my sympathy.