In general, I don't consider myself a complainer. Anyone who's around me long enough (cough cough Travis) will get an earful every now and then. But, in general, complaining is not really my style, mostly because...hmm... WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO ANYONE?
This is my blog, however, and as I disclaimed in the title, I am entitled to a little complaining. Ironically, my complaint concerns complainers.
*phone rings*
me: Orem Library, Media.
Lady: Yes, hi. We're trying to watch a DVD that we checked out and we can't get it out of the case. Is there some special trick?
me: Yeaaah... there's a red security hub that's keeping the disc in place. That's something you have to get taken off at the library.
Lady: Why don't the self check-outs have a sign or something that tells you need to get it taken off??
[me thinking: Oh no. Not another one.]
me: Well, there is actually a sign that pops up on the screen warning you about the hubs...
Lady: No. No there wasn't.
[me thinking: Oh there isn't, is there? You know that for sure? Would you stake your life on it? I've only worked here since they implemented the self checkouts, but I don't know a thing. I only know the ins and outs of this place. But don't take my word for it. Since you're so sure, you must be right!]
me: ... So, unfortunately, the only way to get that sucker off is to bring it back in and have us take it off for you. I'm really sorry. It's annoying.
Lady: Yeah, well, that's just great with gas prices at $4 a gallon.
me: Yeah, I'm really sorry.
Lady: Ok then. Bye.
*facepalm*
I understand this lady's complaint, and I sympathize. It's annoying. It really is. And I've been in her place before. But the fact is, complaining to me about the price of gas (or rice in China, or whatever it may be), and being just a little bit proud and unreasonable, is not going to change the fact that she has to come back in and get the hub off. (Fact!) It's only going to make the whole process that much more annoying.
So here are the morals of my little diatribe here:
1. Stuff is annoying. Complaining about it doesn't help anybody, least of all the person you are complaining to.
2. Sometimes, you may swear up and down that you're right about something. But sometimes the fact is, you're wrong. Be humble enough to acknowledge at least the possibility.
3. Don't be a jerk to the people who aren't responsible.
Check that... just don't be a jerk.
[--End]
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9 comments:
Two thoughts. First, our own dear Mike figured out how to get those hubs off. Second, why doesn't the library just program the self-checkout to refuse to check out DVDs?
The original self-checkouts didn't check out DVDs, but the object of the new system is to allow people to be as independent of the clerks as they need to be, thus reducing the number of staff needed (because the library is perpetually understaffed these days due to economic woes) and upping the efficiency of the whole checkout process.
Ideally, after checking out DVDs, people will bother to read the screen that pops up in GIANT RED LETTERS that tells them to remember to get the hub off. :) :)
the other moral is that people never, ever read anything, especially anything smacking of fine print--which is what the dvd sign is kind of like.
and i would say people are way more often wrong about something they supposedly remember than they are right.
the less on insist on arguing for something i'm sure of, the happier i am.
plus, gas is only $3.59 a gallon.
plus, if she is a new patron to the library and therefore unused to the hubs, you would think she would pay extra attention to everything new, like what the screen say son the self checkout.
wow, pms is really making me annoyed with you. :)
typos!!!!! hooray!!!!
Lol! Annoyed WITH me but not AT me. :)
Sorry to spread the negative. THat's why i don't vent too much on my blog.
One of my favorite thoughts from Joseph Smith:
When I have heard of a story about me, I sit down and think about it and pray about it, and I ask myself the question, "Did I say something or was there something about my manner to give some basis for that story to start?" And often if I think about it long enough, I realize I have done something to give that basis. And there wells up in me a forgiveness of the person who has told that story, and a resolve that I will never do that thing again. [See They Knew the Prophet, comp. Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1974), p. 144]
That's a good one, Mike. Joseph Smith was a good example of humility and giving the benefit of the doubt.
One meets true humility so infrequently these days that I think I would be very inspired, even overwhelmed, if I did!
As Grampa Virgil always would say 'No use complaining, no one gives a damn about it anyhoo."
lol, nancy! too true! pear, i totally know what you are talking about. i get phone calls at the penn fitness center all the time. perhaps i should make a post about them. they are, as you know, life-shattering problems that must be resolved NOW as per the patron :) a little accountability would go a long way, i think!
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