Whiny people at easy jobs?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Maybe its just a personal observation, but I’ve noticed the cushier the job, the more people there whine about petty things. The first couple of jobs I had were pretty crappy. Among common issues:

-“We don’t do overtime here” which translates to we will find convoluted ways to circumvent labor laws and screw you out of overtime that you may end up working anyway.

-“Customer is always right” type workplaces that are subject to abuse by customers (quite common in retail, obviously)

-Low pay, nonexistant benefits, other stuff

In these types of jobs few people complained that loudly. If they did, generally it was because it was their fist job and not used to actually WORKING (my favorite being at one PT job where several coworkers whined that a 4-hour shift was “too long” to work in one stretch :rolleyes: ) however besides these kinds of crybabies (mainly doing it out of lack of experience and not so much whininess) people put up with a lot of crap.

Right now I work for a job where I get paid very handsomely for what I do. Because I am paid hourly I can easily make more money than my salaried supervisors. Overtime is plentiful and if I wanted to work 365+ days straight I could (and pull down over a hundred grand…driving a bus :smiley: ) Conversely I could also work a flat 40 hrs/week and make the most out of all my vacation days and sick time if I wish. Benefits are great, if I get in trouble (ranging from totall innocent to ‘hand caught in the cookie jar’ guilty) I have the protection of my peers/union. Personally, its the best job I’ve ever had, and an AWESOME job in these economic times.

And yet I work with some of the biggest whiners ever! What do they whine about? Petty stuff- like "the bathroom at the transit station is 100 feet from the bus parking area. Thats TOO FAR :o " and “ITS NOT FAIR they don’t give us buses that have cupholders to hold our coffee” :dubious:

Perhaps because its a union job, a type of jobs which tends to encourage not innovation, compassion, or pragmatism and tends to breed self-entitlement and sloth and since its the first union job I ever worked maybe its just a culture shock to me.

Of course its rubbing off on me since I’m whining about people whining about stuff :stuck_out_tongue: but I guess I do get a little irritated about it at times since it seems like the newer people (who are more likely to be nice/accomodating to passengers, realistic about what the union can/cant do and try to actually enjoy their jobs) are going to be those let go if there are layoffs while the dinosaurs who whine that the seatbelts chafe their 60-inch waists will continue to stay and whine further.

2

I think people whine about any job, regardless of how good or bad it is; it’s just human nature. Kinda like saying you don’t feel like eating the leftover steak in your fridge; the “starving children in Country X” would LOVE to eat that steak/have never seen steak/would like five grains of rice, etc., etc…but that doesn’t mean you are eternally, slavishly grateful for the fact that YOU have the luxury of turning down steak.

And the more people get, the more they generally feel entitled to; even as a bartender, I’m aware that I make good money even on a “bad night.” That doesn’t stop me from whining about “only” making X when two weeks ago I made Y.

That doesn’t make it right, of course. I know lots of bartenders who are dying to have my job. That doesn’t mean I don’t whine and complain about it, or that I’m always happy to do it, or that I’m smiling all day long.

I’m aware that I SHOULD, though…

:wink:

3

I think there’s a direct correlation here–the type of people who whine about petty things also tend to only be qualified for easy jobs.

4

I work in a government law office. I’m regularly one of - if not the top producers, tho I will be the first person to admit that I do not work my fingers to the bone. posting from work right now… I am regularly impressed by the number of my co-workers pulling down 6 figure salaries who not only are low producers, but loudly proclaim that they CAN’T do any more than they are.

Perhaps worse is that mgmt tolerates such attitudes. :rolleyes:

I really wonder what these folk would do if they had to work in a private firm - or better yet, in a factory where you have no control over the speed they choose to set the machine. I’ve had both types of jobs, and readily acknowledge that I’ve got a swett gig.

Heck, I don’t complain about my whiny, unproductive wo-workers. In fact, they are my favorite co-workers, because they make me look so good by comparison! :stuck_out_tongue:

5

I really really wish I could remember which one of the posters here said this:

“Don’t be fooled into thinking that people bitching about their job constitutes hating their job. People have a certain about of bitching and moaning inside them that has to be expelled before they die. No matter how good a person’s life is, they have a preset Whining Rate that they have to keep up. If a real professional whiner were given $25 million, a mansion, free boats, servants and exemption from taxes for the rest of his life, six months from now he’d be complaining that his car-servant doesn’t wax the Lambourghini right and his Thursday hooker’s blowjobs are getting a bit predictable.”

6

Damn, the search function actually worked for a change. The quote above was from RickJay, in this thread about hating your job.

7

This is true, but there’s another side to it, as well: don’t assume difficulty level is the constant and fortitude is the variable. Some things that are difficult for most people are easy for some, and some things that are easy for most people are difficult for some.

8

Some people just like to whine. You could give them the moon and the stars and they’d complain that the moon is too bumpy and the stars are too pointy.

When I worked in technology, some of the very spoiled youngsters would moan about all kinds of trivia. I’d tell them, hey, you’re doing work you love, that you would probably do as a hobby anyway, you work indoors, at a desk, in a clean and climate controlled environment, and you get paid a boatload of money to do it. What the…?

9

I work for the federal government and on account of being one of the two non-married/childless individuals in my office I’m part of the duo that works/produces way way more than the others and I still only put in 40 hrs a week.

I’ve caught people sleeping at their desks. I always make sure to ask them how work is going on the elevators-it’s always “it’s so busy, I’m burnt out.” I’m always laughing on the inside but I’m also inwardly impressed at their commitment to the farce.

And on top of all of that, I’m a union steward and privy to everyone’s complaints. My favourite is the non-supe GS-15 who came to me crying about how he/she does more work “than even the attorneys”. Well no sh*t beyotch, you outrank even the Chief Counsel!

Zoo culture is surreal. On the other hand, my blood pressure and heartrate are so low I’m almost clinically dead.

10

I think the majority of the crowd here is correct. I was listening to comedian Joe Rogan on the radio the other day (by which I mean six years ago) complain about hosting Fear Factor, then added there was a distinction between his Fear Factor gripes, and his stand-up gripes. He actually despised Fear Factor, but continued to host anyway because he is simply a “whore.” Stand-up, on the other hand, is his passion, his life, and he still complains about it anyway. Why? Because complaining is fun.

I will add that I find some complaints to be amusing and others to be highly annoying and whiny. This isn’t anything I’ve given much thought to, but I think I tend to favor complaints that are amusing, or that are not the result of enabling. When I hear people complain about situations they’ve created and/or are doing nothing to resolve, I get bothered. And it’s even more annoying if the complaints aren’t entertaining.

11

Every person has a certain amount of bitching in them that they need to get out before they die. Doesn’t matter what they do for a living.

I don’t complain about my job too much and never have, in any job. Some of them were hard, some weren’t. I complain a little, but for the most part my attitude is that if jobs were supposed to be wonderful they wouldn’t have to pay me so much money to do them, and anyway it bores people.

Some people just will not stop bitching and whining about their jobs. I’ve known people who did hard jobs that never complained, and people who did easy jobs that whined, and I’ve known people who did hard jobs and REALLY complained and people who did easy jobs and knew it.

In my experience, if you know someone long enough you realize they will bitch exactly the same amount about any job they ever hold no matter what.

12

It’s partially because your brain’s a dick and moves your standards of happiness upwards when you achieve your goals so you don’t stop contributing to society. No matter whether it will ACTUALLY increase our happiness of not. So basically they would have been thrilled and had 100% satisfaction when they were below that status and just got it, but their brain decided to whine about bathrooms because it’s something they can improve on that’s not perfect. This is also the reason executives can whine about having to live on ONLY $500k a year when it seems patently ridiculous for a complaint to the rest of us.

13

People like to complain because no matter how awesome it is, because you are doing it at work it sucks. There is an old saying that a perfect way to start hating your favorite hobby is to turn it into your job.

From a previous job:
Me: This sucks, I have to get packed to go on a six week business trip.
Friend: That does suck. Where do they have you going?
Me: Some company in Amsterdam.
Friend: …I want you to shut your fucking mouth and never speak to me again.

I remember my first job. It’s the first night of our 4 week orientation training and I’m having dinner with my start group at the conference center. So the menu is like chicken or steak and one of the guys is like “This is awesome. We can have steak every night!” I’m like “Yeah…I’ll bet you by week 2 we are going to be like ‘Ahh man…steak again. This sucks’”. Sure enough.
I pull down a six figure salary and I’m not really that busy. But at least I’m complaining about not being busy! And right now it beats complaining about not having a job.

14

There are a lot of whiners at my job, and they don’t know how good they have it. Most are “production operators”. They get paid to be machinists, when all they really do is stand at a C.N.C. mill or lathe all day.
The whiners, across the board, have never worked at a real job shop, aren’t qualified as machinists, and have no idea how easy their job actually is.

15

I disagree with that article. A year later, I still find my 50 in plasma TV so awesome that I can barely watch TV on anything else.

The reason people are discontent no matter how much money they make is that making a bit more money now brings new luxuries that become necessesities and puts them just below the next standard of living. If you have a BMW, you want a Porsche. If you can afford a Porsche, now you want a Ferarri. All your millionare friends have Ferarris? Now you need some sort of McLaren supercar. Making a little bit of money only shows you how much money you aren’t making. I mean how are you going to afford a Gulfstream jet or an estate in the Cayman Islands on a mere $500k a year?

16

Sure, that free pony is great… until I have to feed it and it takes a dump on the floor.

17

Word. I’m known to complain/whine about stupid shit at work from time to time, and unfortunately some people interpret this as me not liking my job (which is usually a totally incorrect interpretation). I personally believe that complaining serves an important function. It’s like the pressure-relief valve on a water heater (really, that’s why it’s called “blowing off steam”). Some minor thing bugs you, you complain about it and get it out of your system, instead of letting it build up until you eventually explode and go postal on everybody.

What’s interesting is that people doing exactly the same job see the complaining for what it is: pressure relief; people doing a different job see the complaining as in indicator of dissatisfaction. My most memorable example of this came when I was working as a short order cook in a small diner. The owner, an experienced restaurateur, had passed away and her husband was now running the place. The husband was not a restaurant person - he was our city’s Fire Chief. His late wife listened to employee whining and simply commiserated, because she knew where it was coming from. Her husband, not so much. One day I was pissing and moaning with my fellow cook, but also attempting to inject some humor into my complaints about a certain group of regular customers who came in every single day and all ordered exactly the same thing (hashbrowns & gravy) every time. My gripes were basically about how tiresome it was to cook the same simple thing over and over and over, and the way my mind boggled that these people could eat the same thing day after day after day.

Well, Mr. Fire Chief overheard this and decided to set me straight. I got a long, sarcastic lecture about economics and how we depend on these customers to come in and spend money so that Mr. Fire Chief could put the money in the bank so that he could pay my wages, blah blah blah. My thought: “Well no shit.” I wanted to ask him (though I didn’t) if he, when he was just a regular firefighter, ever complained about having to constantly polish the chrome on the fire trucks. I know the answer: of course he did. It’s an essential task, necessary to making sure that the firefighting equipment is in proper working condition, but explaining that to a complaining fireman is pointless - he already knows it. The complaining is simply a part of camaraderie amongst fire fighters. It was exactly the same thing with my complaining - it was just a way to blow steam with my fellow cooks.

Heck, as a cook I’ve heard hundreds of complaints from servers about bad tippers. I could tell these servers, “I don’t give a fuck! Quit complaining! Be happy you have a job!”, but I don’t say that. True, I really don’t give a fuck, but I know what they’re doing - they’re blowing off steam the same way I do.

I’m currently a banquet chef at my city’s convention center. We chefs, and the serving staff, get to eat whatever food is left over after the different groups have been fed. One of the sales guys was joking about the younger staff members who never cook at home because they do all their eating at work. “They don’t know how good they have it. They complain, ‘Oh man, prime rib again?’”

18

Union job = big babies. Just my opinion (of course).

19

Union workers, government workers, pretty much anyone who joins the type of job where there are complex structures in place to keep them from doing more than a fixed amount of work. That’s because people who take those type of jobs typically are the type of people who are trying to do the least amount of work possible.

20

I was blown away at the amount of whining I encountered after I left foodservice/professional cooking after 18 years and was lucky enough to bullshit my way into a clerk typist position at a state university. Actual heartfelt complaining about how hard they’re working when they’re doing something excruciating like copying exams or researching flights online for business travel.

Jeebus holy crap, these people sit in a chair (!) all day long, get regular breaks, work no nights or weekends, lift nothing heavy, make no split second decisions, etc. etc., ad nauseum. Then they forward these idiotic emails around Admin Assts day each year about the “10 most stressful jobs”, one of which they claim is secretary or clerk. Right. So much worse than, say, and EMT or crime scene forensic analyst or a fucking cowboy or whatever.

8 years later I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have weaseled my way into such a cushy position (with benefits no less!), make buttloads more money and do so little, while actually finishing the task(s) at hand with time to spare. I’ve also been upgraded three times since being hired, I guess my work ethic is showing.

My only complaint now is that I don’t get to swear and burp as much as in my former profession. :slight_smile: