What is WITH people?

[sparquelito]

I worked a wedding yesterday, and it was a harried affair.

In-laws and outlaws from out of town, people scampering everywhere.

We were in a large hotel attached to the international airport, and things were hopping.

 

To get to the wedding, you had to walk past a greeter, thru the bar/pub area, and into a carpeted hallway where the wedding ballroom and food serving foyer were.

 

The thing is, you see, the floor in and around the tables in the bar was sticky.

(Somebody had spilled a Coke or something the previous evening, apparently, and it hadn't been mopped up correctly.)

The floor looked okay, but it was very sticky, for the entire length of the bar floor.

 

I got things organized for the nuptials, shook hands, kissed babies, and got everything ready for the wedding service.

*schrrch* *schrrch* *schrrch* went everybody's shoes as they came and went, as we all waited for the bride and her hens to come down and get things started.

 

The food servers, bartender, and the manager/greeter-girl all traversed the sticky floor as they went hither and yon.

*schrrch* *schrrch* *schrrch* went their shoes as they walked thru, getting the ancillary bar set up.

None of them seemed to mind the disturbingly-sticky floor.

 

A half hour before the wedding was supposed to start, I flagged down the manager/greeter girl.

 

"Hello ma'am, I hate to bother you, but this floor here where the bride and her maidens will soon be walking is quite sticky. Can you call housekeeping and ask somebody to come mop it up real good?"

 

"Oh, uh, I, uh, hadn't noticed."

 

"Yeah, look, this is a very special day for the bride and her family. People should remember the service, the tasteful decorations, and the beautiful spread of food that you guys have prepared for the day. What they SHOULDN'T remember is a horrible sticky floor, and how the hosting hotel didn't care enough to get all the details right."

 

"Okay, I'll go get one of the kitchen boys to come mop that right now."

 

"Thank you."

 

Sure enough, one of the lads from the back came out and squared the floor away, and the wedding went on without a hitch.

 

 

To the original question.

What is with people?

 

I have noticed more and more in recent years that self-awareness, company pride, good customer service, and neatness have become obsolete concepts.

 

Fast food workers walking thru a messy dining area and not pausing to pick things up.

Strip mall parking lots full of litter and debris.

Indifferent store clerks rolling their eyes whenever you ask them to exert a little effort for you.

 

Is it just me, or is this becoming a universal thing?

 

:mellow:

 

[kelly campbell]

I agree it is part of the deterioration of standards in our society, today we put more emphasis on speed and efficiency rather than quality. We also put more emphasis on the individual which starts at home it is a "all about me" world anymore. sad but it is the way it is.

[Retired]

?????? Really?? We haven't seen that sloppy of service hear anywhere. A few very slow waitresses at times that could care less and I tell the wife, "there went a percentage of her tip." And we tip well for great service. But that does remind me of a foreman at BNSF that always claimed, "That's Not My Job" no matter what you asked him to do. Once they couldn't find him nowhere at work. Upper management was asking all the carman if they've seen him. He wouldn't respond to his radio. The lead man finally drove over to his house and found Fran mowing his yard on company time. You would think at a wedding though? Come on people, what's wrong with you?

[rct]

...I have noticed more and more in recent years that self-awareness, company pride, good customer service, and neatness have become obsolete concepts.

 

Yer aging, so you b1tch more. They cleaned it up once it was pointed out, so, like, that's why you have a mouth I guess!

 

rct

[Digger]

My personal belief is that people's personal standards of behaviour have been falling for as long as I can remember.

[LarryUK]

You pay peanuts and you get monkeys.

It's all greed and profit. People (corporations) want millions in profit, but don't want to pay the staff a living wage.

The staff know this, hence no one gives a f***.

 

Here in Britain, this Government brought in something called 'workfare'. It's a scheme that is supposed to help people into work. If you are on benefits (unemployed) they make you work for nothing, eg, in a shop. So. The unemployed get around £65 a week unemployment benefit and have to go to this free job. It could be ten miles away, so have to pay for transport etc out of their benefit and then work for a corporation for free. We have shops where the only person being paid is the manager. How can that be right and give someone the motivation to work? I remember when one wage was enough for a family to live on. Now, two isn't enough. It's a sad situation when families cant afford food and their bosses live in absolute luxury.

[sparquelito]

Yer aging, so you b1tch more. They cleaned it up once it was pointed out, so, like, that's why you have a mouth I guess!

rct

 

Truth be told, I would have done and said the same things when I was 24 or 39.

 

I've always been fussy about the details, and weddings deserve just a bit more than the usual service when it comes to niceness and class.

I am 57 now (give or take a few trips around the sun), and I think I am pretty fair and even-handed when it comes to speaking to customer service people.

 

That said, here are the things that really grind my b1tching gears:

 

* People who text while driving

 

* People who throw trash out the windows of their cars

 

* People who lie and steal, and don't pull their weight when there's work to be done

and

 

* People who play Sweet Child O Mine in the music store.

 

That's about it.

[kidblast]

The thing is, you were working in the details whereas those whose job it was, weren't good job picking up someone's else's slack....

[OldCowboy]

I'm WAY older than most of you. Seems to me times have changed, but the nature of people is about the same. Both good and bad are out there just like always.

[badbluesplayer]

Oh geez. Now I gotta read about what's going on down in the bilges during some wedding!

[Murph]

You're right.

 

There is far less pride in peoples work.

 

It's because nobody HAS to work anymore. They can get free food, free housing, free healthcare, even an Obama phone. There is no incentive to work.

 

I see little houses rotting to the ground that would be good "fixer uppers" for a young person, or couple, starting out but nobody buys them, nobody fixes them.

 

I flipped dozens of houses in my younger days.

 

Hunger is the best incentive to work.

[SteveFord]

I went to a state park yesterday and you can't believe what the porta potty was like.

I'll spare you the details but there's no way you could miss a toilet that badly and it wasn't urine.

What is with people? I do not know.

[Hall]

I'm WAY older than most of you. Seems to me times have changed, but the nature of people is about the same. Both good and bad are out there just like always.

 

 

Naw. You can't be any older than me! I still ride a horse and view steam locomotives as progress enough. There are both good and bad for certain, but it sure feels like the bad are taking the lead anymore.

[american cheez]

i'm only 51, not as old as some of you cogers. however, i do remember standards and personal morality being...different. i hesitate to use the word better. in some cases, yes, and in some, no.

for those of you my age and older, think about what the world was like when you were 16. it was very unlike the world you find yourself in right now. your father went through the same thing, more than most likely, depending on how old he was when he died. and his father did as well. maybe the one before that, not so much, but still quite a bit depending on his status and geographic location. we can only imagine what things our children will see. i think some of what people mentioned in the above posts stems from that. it's a whole different situation now, and the game gets played by a different set of rules. by the time you get a real handle on thisngs, they begin to change. it's really frustrating. i think that's what it is.

[Digger]

I think as we age we all look back to earlier times with fondness but sometimes we overlook the benefits of today's world a little.

 

Here's a couple of things: I would have died but for hi tech medical care last week. In fact I probably would have been dead years ago but for current medical technology.

 

Many of us can afford to travel these days, something that was unusual in my parents days. And now when you are the other side of the world, you can easily communicate back home, even by video if we want to. This seemed a miracle to my parents, yet we take it for granted.

 

High technology can only be supported by big population, as without the demand, there can be no supply. Big populations bring a host of social difficulties however and those are the things I think some of you are commenting about. I've watched personal standards fall by the wayside over the last 70 years and that may be a product of life in large cities, where you are much less visible than say in a country town, where being known may keep you in check somewhat.

 

Unfettered population growth will ultimately will be our undoing unless we can find a way of holding it back.

[RowdyMoon]

I blame the internet......seriously!!...people sit at home and judge and post hate and loose thier fear of telling others they suck etc etc etc....kids start young and it carries over to real life....me ,me ,me, selfies , more selfies me, me , me ..look at me...next time your out shopping at the mall just look at all the posers!!.....morality is slowing going by way of the dodo...and kind of depravity you want is out there on the net..child porn, rape images, killing, gore and worse on and on.. .....30 years ago if we saw a 3rd of whats out there now we would be shocked......obviously there is much more to this conversation, way more than I could articulate but I think you get what I mean..

[Retired]

1467638469[/url]' post='1782163']

I went to a state park yesterday and you can't believe what the porta potty was like.

I'll spare you the details but there's no way you could miss a toilet that badly and it wasn't urine.

What is with people? I do not know.

 

Ha, that is bad. Sort of reminds me of two videos I saw on Facebook awhile back. Two different ladies were shopping at a Wall Mart or some grocery store and had to relieve themselves. No one was in the isle and the store camera caught them each squatting down and crapped on the floor and then pulled their pants back up and kept shopping. I thought: Why? They have restrooms! They didn't say where or what country the videos were taken in. Guess some folks don't give a crap. Lol

[merciful-evans]

I think as we age we all look back to earlier times with fondness but sometimes we overlook the benefits of today's world a little.

 

Here's a couple of things: I would have died but for hi tech medical care last week. In fact I probably would have been dead years ago but for current medical technology.

 

 

 

That puts it nicely into perspective Digger. Glad you are still around.

It wont stop any of us complaining of course, but it good to know that we'll be around to complain bit longer.