Ultimate Blog Challenge - Ten Behaviors that bother me

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Welcome back to another edition of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. On day 10 we're supposed to publish a list of 10 (fill in your own topic).

Here's what I chose:

Ten Behaviors that bother me

Many times, when writing about things, I happen to get clarity on things. I hope this will be the case today. I notice that certain qualities in people annoy me more than average. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. "I want my cake, I want it now, for free, and I want to eat it, too." People who constantly ask for help and things, and even as they're being given recommendations, they keep pointing out that it needs to be a certain way, and that it's not supposed to be costly. Geez! Services are time-consuming, and people make a living providing them. Why should they make an exception for you?
2. "Am I overreacting? This is the situation... bla bla, bla" Describes situation that clearly shows they're overreacting and plain wrong. Many people tell them to breathe and let it go. Person proceeds to throw a fit and insult friends whose advice they asked for. Same goes for complaining. Love it, leave it or change it, but quit the whining!
3. "I just received a letter that my kids will have to go to a public school that I cannot approve of." Lady, it's public school. You're not being asked to approve. It's just a matter of fact type of information. Imagine the can of worms schools would open if they sent out wish lists and then collect input and thumbs up or down from the parents.
4. "Hey, I understand if I pay your bill within 10 days, I'm eligible for a 2% discount. It's now been a few days later, may I still deduct the 2%?" After finding out it's day 20 after the invoice has been received, I say, no, I'm sorry, you need to pay the full price. Customer chooses to wait for another 10 days, it's now been 30 days in total, and transfers the reduced amount.
5. "Hi, long time no hear, listen, I need a favor" Right, it's been some time alright. The last time you got in touch you also needed a favor. Come to think of it, you will only ever call or text if you need something from me. 
6. Flaky people. If you say you're going to get something done or be at a certain location at at certain time, I expect you to be there. I've had it with life happens, and all the other lame excuses. 
7. Shirkers. We are all busy, and some tasks are unpopular, but when it is your turn, kindly pull up your big kids pants and show up to do your part! 
8. Parents who "deport" their children to unsuspecting, good-natured people who will take care of, chauffeur and feed these kids. There's a lengthy backstory for this. It includes a mother's suggestion to leave their 14 yo at a freeway rest area until it's convenient for her to pick him up. At 11pm. Let me know if you'd like to read about it. 
9. Brazen liars who will tell people freely invented stories in order to get what they want. I had a manager who was a particularly bad example for this. He would tell people he needed long lunch breaks in order to babysit his kid when in reality he went and played tennis. On his way back he would call his subordinated and be like "hey, there's a meeting in half an hour, I'm on my way to the office, I need you to prepare the presentation." Needless to say he would take the credit for himself.
10. People who think rules only apply to other people, whether it's (non) smoking, waiting in line, or observing blog commenting netiquette. 

There, I said it. 

Disclaimer: we all have been late or forgotten do do something one time or another. I am not talking about that. Also, when we were unreliable, we will apologize and make up for it. I'm talking about the people whose baseline is "I am the center of the universe, and other people are here to serve me."

In the intro I said I was hoping to get clarity on the subject. The only thing I can come up is to try and avoid contact with these people. Sometimes you can't. In that case I will try to breathe in, breathe out and take the high road. Again.

Can you relate to any of those?