@Shoryu Magami I used to be able to tolerate secondhand smoke to an extent just because mom smoked. But, now that she's gone, I'm not used to it, and it REALLY bothers me.
Yeah, you've made that clear to me plenty of times when we've discussed this off the site. I think the only reason you had any tolerance at all with second-hand smoke was because of your mother's situation. Ever since she passed away, you've frequently made a point of how much it upsets you when your neighbours are smoking (more so because it's meant to be a no smoking apartment).
Here's my gripe:
I'm pretty tired of my co-workers, if you can even call them workers...
At FedEx, we start our shift an hour earlier on Mondays to deal with the uptick package volume, but it seems like most people think it's optional, when in fact it's not. So when three out of 25 people show up for shift, it leaves us pretty desperate and we have to fill several roles at once. Don't get me started on the ones who don't even TRY to do their job right. I'm so tired of people taking their job for granted, especially when it pays well.
Every other day, probably only 1/2 to 1/3rd actually show up in time for the pre-shift meeting and everyone else filters in within 15-30 minutes of shift start time. I really think my boss is too nice on them. Being tardy for work is childish, irresponsible and just plain stupid. Shows you have no work ethic, no respect for your job or your employer.
I end up going in early for my shift to cover the mess made by the last shift so that I'm not left struggling to do my job later on. When someone people get angry because of their job, it's because they hate what they do. I get angry because I hate my co-workers.
I wasn't going to say this publically (multitasking more than enough as it is, and went 32 hours without sleep yesterday), even though it's constantly on my mind and I think it's a very big problem in society (plus over the last week it keeps getting brought to the surface by various people on and off the site), but since your decision to bring this up has essentially just opened the door for me to go into it a little without it just seeming like a rant with no context, I'm going to milk this opportunity. I have no intentions of blogging my entire thoughts about it here, but I do plan to say a few things that have been really getting on my nerves lately.
The issues within society that I'm talking about are pretty much the cause of the situation you're in right now at FedEx with these co-workers, and is also one we've discussed many times off this site. To be specific, how the work systems and education systems in societies all across the world operate, and more specifically the impact they have on people's opinions. What I'm about to say is not a direct statement against anyone here, nor those who do have a successful life, since there's exceptions to every rule (and that is part of the point I'm about to make actually), though if anyone decides to take offense to it I frankly don't give a shit anyway. This is meant to be a social commentary and has nothing to do with any one person or organization. It's merely some food for thought (not that I expect most people to actually read this).
I've slightly addressed the issues in both
this post and
this one as well, to name just a few places on this website alone where this gripe has surfaced recently (again, I will emphasize that misunderstandings aside I am not posting this because of anyone on this site, as these issues are recurrent problems I encounter all the time), and with some exceptions the points in those posts will not be repeated here since I don't want this to go on longer than it's already going to, so read those if you can actually stomach long posts (too many people bitch about walls of text, in fact I might make a post in this thread at some point about that;
this is a writing-focused website, learn to fucking read) and want more details in addition to what I post here.
Firstly, there are way too many people who seem to think that getting a job is simple. I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but discussions I have with a lot of people imply it is in First World countries. Unless you have previous work experience, virtually any real job will deny you outright no matter how intelligent or devoted you are unless you have a certain number of years of work experience, and many will also deny you just because they don't like the look of you. There are many people who need a job in order to get on with their lives but don't have any work experience (an obvious problem for younger people, but also an issue for people whose life circumstances have prevented them any opportunity to work). How are people supposed to get work experience if every job they could apply for (because those jobs don't require some fancy resume or a piece of paper saying you managed to graduate and are supposedly qualified to do something) to get said experience requires that they already have it?
I should probably make a point at this time that this problem doesn't apply to me too much, so I'm mostly speaking on behalf of a lot of other people I've spoken to when it comes to this particular issue. I don't have work experience myself, but my other circumstances are less common and not something I plan to go into in this post as they aren't focused on my main points. Even so, this also leads to a problem where many who actually have a job take it for granted, which can not only result in many people actually half-arsing their job like they think it will always be there (such as the aforementioned co-workers that Amanda mentioned), and also that it gives people the delusion that anyone who doesn't have a job is only in that situation by their own failings.
My other, and more personal, gripe is the way people act towards formal education. There's way too many people out there who seem to have this idea in their head that your education somehow serves as a solid validation all on its own of what you're capable of, and they hide behind their degrees or other paperwork or position in the workforce like some sort of prestige; people who rely on prestige usually have no real talent. While this is certainly a problem with people who are successful in the workforce basically looking down on those who aren't like it's somehow automatically their fault (assuming things makes you look like a moron, just for the record), I've found that the issue comes up way more when it involves education.
The biggest issue this creates is that unless you have a formal education in a field, people will often assume you lack wisdom or understanding on it, no matter how valid your views and insight might be, despite people with a formal education not being the only people who can comprehend a subject or have solid knowledge of it, and it also being a well-known fact that many of the greatest minds in the world never even finished (or went to) school, and many of them were also never successful in their lifetime. It seems that having a degree is nothing more than an excuse for people to have a superiority complex, especially when a lot of people who look good on paper end up being really incompetent or short-sighted.
Education doesn't instantly equal insight, and experience doesn't instantly equal wisdom. Also, doing things "by the book" doesn't mean you'll be proficient, and education doesn't always provide you with any genuine knowledge or skills for a job or for going out into the real world. I also know plenty of people who've had way more life experience than me yet they sure as hell don't have any of the wisdom I have; they had to go out into the world and screw up over and over again to get their retrospect, while I always had the foresight not to make those screw ups at all.
So why exactly are these issues relevant to the problem Amanda has at FedEx with her co-workers? She is an exception to the rule because she's actually hard-working and intelligent, but many people in this world are not qualified for their job, no matter how many qualifications they might have on paper. A large number of people who get a job only manage to because they happened to meet the right person at the right time and simply got lucky, or they only got the job because they could be paid less than someone (or something, thanks to machines; say good bye to the economy, it was nice while it lasted) else. Those who have jobs frequently take them for granted and are just as frequently incompetent, and many incredibly intelligent and skilled people go through their entire lives without any work simply because their social circumstances or luck are terrible. There's also many jobs out there that are more suitable to people who have absolutely no morals, resulting in psychopaths being in many high positions in society (and we wonder why the world is so screwed up; think about it).
Some people are born into wealth without ever working for it, or pay their way/get paid through their education, while many more people struggle to make any sort of progress up the ladder and never end up getting anywhere. Yes, people can overcome bad situations, but anyone who thinks that everyone will (or that those who don't are failures) is completely delusional and seriously deserves to taste the other side of the wall. The same can be said for anyone who dismisses a person's words or views simply because they don't have a formal education.
