One day last week I was having breakfast at a cafe in Woden and had the rather amusing (and unavoidable without earplugs) pleasure of eavesdropping on the people at the table behind me. Whilst I say “people”, it’s probably fairer to say “one of the people” as the conversation was very one-sided, to the point of having one woman talking, and the other one intermittently grunting sympathetically.
I picked up on the conversation when this particular woman was complaining about the 2IC in her workplace who is apparently a very diligent worker and does half of the complainers work because she doesn’t really manage to get around to it, but wants to take the rostered days off to which she is entitled. I couldn’t quite work out the logic behind this complaint, except that, perhaps, if the 2IC had the day off, the complainer might actually have to do some work. Oh the horror of the notion.
The next complaint was downright bizarre. It took a very very long time for her to rant about this one, but the basic summary is that her daughter failed a driving assessment because, to be blunt, her driving skills don’t exist. Apparently the fact that the government wouldn’t let her have a licence was an absolute outrage…and to make matters worse, she has to book in for another assessment (without gaining some skills, apparently) at a time which, *gasp*, the government have an available timeslot, not at a time dictated by the complainer.
Just to give her yet another reason to complain, she arranged all of the rosters at her work on the assumption that the government would read her mind and have a spare slot for her daughter on the day when her workplace’s schedule prefers. Not surprisingly, when she rang the government to book an appointment at her preferred time, they “typically” couldn’t accommodate her, which forced her to accept a time two days later and rearrange those rosters…which prompted complaints from her staff who had been promised particular shifts or days off. If only those staff would understand…
She also found something else to complain about, not that I remember what it was.
This morning I had breakfast in the same place and unfortunately ran in to the same complainer…and she was still complaining. Her staff still want time off (“despicable”), and apparently she went to exchange some Australian Dollars for US Dollars yesterday, but the exchange place wouldn’t give her as many US dollars as she wanted (“something to do with some exchange rate or some other nonsense”).
I was hoping that people like this were fictional…unfortunately my faint hope has been eroded. Oh well.
Samuel
Comments Disabled To "Breakfast over a complaint or two or three or four of five or…"
#1 Comment By davky On November 12, 2008 @ 10:52 am
I feel your pain, Samuel.
I was enjoying a coffee outside Big W this morning and at 8.20am began to notice a glut of eager shoppers waiting for the door to open.
Come, 8.27(ish – not all clocks are synchronised!) one particular lady was pressing her face up against the doors trying to peer through the mesh.
By 8.30 she was banging on the door trying to get the attention of the staff to let her in. The poor ladies were scrambling to get their tills ready for open and appeared to be pretending to not hear her.
By 8.32 when the doors did open, the woman was ropable and I overheard her demanding to speak to a manager, as I casually passed by to do some shopping of my own.
I just wish everyone would relax a little more. If you want the doors open when you arrive, don’t get there until 8.35 and then you can be sure of a smooth package – otherwise do what the other shoppers do and grab a coffee, window shop nearby or read the paper.
Ugh!!!! *Vent over*
#2 Comment By Samuel On November 12, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
And why do I get the distinct impression that the lady in question had her watch set about ten minutes fast just so that she could complain about how “late” the Big W staff were.
We get these people where I work too:
OK, so to the best of my knowledge nobody at work (myself included) has ever used that line on a caller….but it would feel very good, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I have been very tempted, especially with the callers who both expect me to know what their problem is thanks to the mysterious psychic forces which surround telephones, and expect me to be able to press that magic “fix everything” button on the wall.