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Take some time to think about what you're doing with your life


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#1 Hergiswi

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Posted 05 March 2019 - 04:31 PM

Can you imagine spending your whole life working, raising a family and saving money, only to spend your retirement complaining that seltzer water costs 99 cents? How about bitching about clam chowder from a chain restaurant once a week because they won't give it to you in your own personal containers because it would be a health code violation? What if you spent your free time being a cheap, entitled asshole and making it everybody else's problem?

 

I don't think most people strive to end up like this, but I've been working in customer service for a very long time and it's dumbfounding to me how many people spend their lives this way. I know it sounds petty, but you have to be at least a certain level of miserable to complain about paying $5 for a complete breakfast plus free coffee. If you're trying to haggle with a gas station cashier about the price of mini-donuts, you should instead go home and fuck yourself. Honestly, there is a very real segment of our society that is just obsessed with really, really stupid crap, and it's preventing them from being happy.

 

I'd say most people on this site are anywhere from mid-teens to late twenties. I'm pleading with you, please take some time to think about what's important in life. If you're constantly upset with people because your preferred brand of cat litter isn't on sale, you should start searching for some direction. Get a hobby, or volunteer at an animal shelter. I don't even think anyone here is guilty of this, but nobody starts out this way. I think it's just important that we all start thinking now about what actually matters. And let me tell you, yelling at minimum-wage workers because your iced mocha doesn't have enough sugar in it isn't going to bring you any fulfillment.

 

It's been a long day.


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#2 Nathaniel

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Posted 05 March 2019 - 05:11 PM

Ah, old people.  They grew up during a time when everything was much cheaper.  While they are probably well aware of inflation over time, I think being old they tend to be less aware of the more subtle changes in more recent times.  They understand that they aren't going to get a meal for $1, but are less aware of a meal going from $4 to $5.  When they are retired, they often have more time on their hands due to having much fewer responsibilities, so complaining about problems tends to be relative to what the worst of them are, outside of physical problems due to old age.  And some of them are also less coherent, be it hearing problems, issues with cognition, or even early stages of dementia, so trying to explain things to them tends to be more of an effort too.  I already see some of that with my mom, but I do remember having similar frustrations when dealing with customers in some of my earlier jobs.  I think over time you realize that some things just come with the territory, and there isn't much you can do about it.  And if some are young as well, shame on them.


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#3 Ben

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Posted 05 March 2019 - 11:42 PM

And let me tell you, yelling at minimum-wage workers because your iced mocha doesn't have enough sugar in it isn't going to bring you any fulfillment.

 

Preach it, brother. As a customer service rep at a store that has been under extensive renovation since September I've been inundated with complaints I can do absolutely zero about. But here's a couple examples of what I and my coworkers in the customer service area have had to put up with lately:

 

Today someone bought a bag of shrimp on sale for $4.99. It rang up $5.00. They complained a lot about this and invoked a state-mandated policy -- if something rings up for more than the price tag says it is, you get it for free (if it's worth $5 or less) or for $5 off (if it's more.) Because it literally rang up by one cent too much, they got free shrimp. They then proceeded to look around the self-checkout area for ten minutes for anything with an expired sale pricetag on it to get more free things, blocking one of the self scan robots essentially during the lunch rush.

 

There's also a guy who comes in every Wednesday and looks around for two hours for expired sale tags, and gets hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars of free stuff.

 

I filled in at our fuel station briefly since they are down a staff member, and am one of the few others who knows how to run the kiosk. Today I had some dumb kid decide to light up a Black & Mild cigar at the fuel station. The instant I noticed I hit the emergency stop button which immediately stops every gas pump, went outside in the freezing cold, and told this kid to put out his cigar because he's preventing anyone from getting any gas. He of course decided to argue about it, but at this point I'd been out there an hour dealing with cranky people because it was 15°F and a blizzard. I told him he could argue with me or he could argue with the cops. He swore at me and put out his cigar and left after a couple other customers, upset at having their gas pumps stopped mid-refuel in this weather, were heading over to see what was going on.


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#4 Rambly

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Posted 06 March 2019 - 08:21 AM

Damn straight.  There's so many people who think that having a service job is beneath them and they're sooo busy with their day and it's soooo horrible that they have to wait an extra 15 minutes because you don't have 3 Meat Treat on the Hot N Ready you only have Pepperoni and you literally have to *make an entire pizza*, or people that tip you fuckin twenty cents even after you had to climb up their dangerous slippery driveway in 0 degree temperatures without the porch light on and a blizzard and then scream at you because their breadsticks came with Ranch instead of Spicy Ranch.

 

I don't think age is necessarily a factor, although holy shit are there a lot of entitled ass people between the ages of like, 60-75.  I know it's sort of hot shit these days to bitch about Baby Boomers, but that's because the stereotype is a little true: By and large they grew up in an era when service jobs were for teenagers who wanted spending money, then you moved onto college that was paid out of a trust fund by your economically comfy parents and played varsity football like a superstar and got a trophy what is with old peoples' obsessions with trophies and projecting their obsession onto young people I don't know anyone my age who gives a shit about trophies what the fuck

 

Anyway, I don't even mean to get political, I'm just saying that the middle 20th century was legitimately a prosperous time for a lot of people.  Like, that's just a fact.  It's the same thing that drives teenagers with rich parents to be stupid assholes about their parents not buying them the brand new $1000 Gold Samsung Galaxy Edge or whatever and instead settling for the $600 one.  When you've never known, even peripherally, what it's like to actually be forced to work a demeaning job in a way that your livelihood depends on it, you tend to not have as much empathy for people in that position.

 

Getting older doesn't mandate that you have to be an asshole to everyone around you, though.  There's this one old lady who lives in the same apartment building as us, and she's one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life.  She's active and engaged with the world around her and just as nice as can be and I swear to God she's probably at least 80, maybe over 90.

 

It sounds stupid, but one of the things that can endear you to a person really quickly is just being considerate and acting like a human being on a basic level.  Just taking some time to understand that, you know, maybe starting an argument with someone over the phone about the fact that their pizza had one less pepperoni than is Supposed to come on a Proper Domino's Brand Pizza is just a little disrespectful towards someone that's (sometimes literally) busting their ass to make you piping hot fresh food.

 

Even just when I'm out shopping, people are assholes.  They cut other people off, they don't watch where they're going, they hold up lines to bitch at the cashier about not taking some coupons from when Eisenhower was President.  Just showing like the most simple ass level of understanding that everyone around you is just trying to get through the day and live their lives means a lot to me.  I probably have low standards.


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#5 Matthew

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Posted 06 March 2019 - 04:11 PM

Bravo Rambly, I agree with all points you made.

 

The level of entitlement some people show is insane. My first day working as a cashier, some other cashiers called out sick, meaning there were no other open lanes. Naturally, this is horrible news for a newbie cashier on a Saturday when all the moms are out grocery shopping. Needless to say, a line quickly formed and people were pissed that I was taking so long. 

 

They were right to be upset, but c'mon! I'm the only open lane and this is a new experience. Sorry you had to wait an extra five minutes for me to scan your premium organic eggplants Karen, but cut me some slack here. One of the women told me it was "ridiculous and unreasonable" that she had to wait a bit longer than normal, and despite being in an ostensible rush, she took plenty of time to complain to my manager about this horrible incident. What a nightmare!

 

Retail jobs suck. (Restaurant jobs suck too. Most cooks are on lots of drugs.) People are backwards. ugh.


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#6 Dark Ice Dragon

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Posted 06 March 2019 - 04:39 PM

Can you imagine spending your whole life working, raising a family and saving money, only to spend your retirement complaining that seltzer water costs 99 cents? How about bitching about clam chowder from a chain restaurant once a week because they won't give it to you in your own personal containers because it would be a health code violation? What if you spent your free time being a cheap, entitled asshole and making it everybody else's problem?

 

I don't think most people strive to end up like this,

 

are you sure ? i know peoples that was like that when was still 8 years old, are the same at 18 and will be the same at 88, natural born balls-breakers that cannot change they nature and live for cause troubles to others, and whit decades of experience...they level up ! 

 

 

Ah, old people.  They grew up during a time when everything was much cheaper.  While they are probably well aware of inflation over time, I think being old they tend to be less aware of the more subtle changes in more recent times.  They understand that they aren't going to get a meal for $1, but are less aware of a meal going from $4 to $5.  When they are retired, they often have more time on their hands due to having much fewer responsibilities, so complaining about problems tends to be relative to what the worst of them are, outside of physical problems due to old age.  And some of them are also less coherent, be it hearing problems, issues with cognition, or even early stages of dementia, so trying to explain things to them tends to be more of an effort too.  I already see some of that with my mom, but I do remember having similar frustrations when dealing with customers in some of my earlier jobs.  I think over time you realize that some things just come with the territory, and there isn't much you can do about it.  And if some are young as well, shame on them.

 

 of course that is true too,  other that the natural-born ones, there also normal people that have normal problems due old age



#7 Magi_Hero

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Posted 07 March 2019 - 10:07 PM

The customer is always wrong, bitch!


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#8 Sheik

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Posted 08 March 2019 - 09:23 PM

Yeah, that's why you'd want socialism, if you were in your right mind.



#9 Hergiswi

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Posted 17 March 2019 - 10:05 PM

Yeah, that's why you'd want socialism, if you were in your right mind.

I don't think I'm understand the connection between socialism and feeling entitled to free ice cream. Actually, now that I type it out, maybe I do.



#10 Anthus

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Posted 18 March 2019 - 12:12 AM

Retail jobs suck. (Restaurant jobs suck too. Most cooks are on lots of drugs.) People are backwards. ugh.

 

Can confirm. I currently work at a store, and it is actually not that bad, besides being insanely tedious, and nothing exciting happens. The people are generally cool, but of course you get the occasional mofo out here trying to save 60 cents on some fucking shamrock patterned napkins cause it rang up wrong.

 

Restaurants do suck though. I worked in food for about seven years, and it was wew the whole time. I've seen a lot of shit there. I'm not "above it" but I definitely wouldn't want to go back to it >.>

 

And as far as the drugs thing goes, that is also pretty true. Most cooks smoke, drink, or do coke. These things are fine in moderation of course, but like, some people just get nuts.

 

Not to mention the nearly incestuous levels of fraternization that goes on in these places. It can make a work environment get real weird real quick. Thankfully, I stayed out of that stuff, mostly. >.>


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