Why Have People Become So Impatient and Entitled? (woman, problems, humans)

[texan2yankee]

I wonder how many of us see other people as humans anymore?

I was in the grocery store last week and a young man behind me kept huffing and sighing loudly and shaking his cart in frustration because I had lots of grocery items to check out and he was impatient having to wait in line for his turn at the checkout counter. His non-verbal aggressiveness was almost intimidating. If there weren't other people around, I would have been a bit frightened by his behavior.

There does seem to be a blindness in seeing the humanity in others these days and a loss in social manners....even in my state known for politeness.

[steiconi]

I get it. I was waiting in line to have my receipt checked at Walmart the other day (what an annoying thing to have to do), and a guy blew past the line. I'm OK with that, if he'd just gone on out the door. But instead, he cut in line.
I said something, and he replied that he wasn't going to stop, but changed his mind. Um, that makes it OK?

Some people are jerks, and make it hard on the rest of us.

[mschrief]

I am practicing for retirement, so I rarely get in a hurry anymore. When husband is taking me to work, folks tailgate and go nuts because we travel at a normal speed.

Poor things. In a rush to get to a job they probably hate.

[ClaraC]

This is a really interesting thread. I agree with almost everyone, although there have been many opinions expressed.

To the OP - I understand your frustration. But what about people who only need to know if a found purse has been turned in, and in order to get to interact with you they'd have to wait behind 3 customers - likely taking a half hour? Or what about the person who just needs to know what time the breakfast buffet opens?

Sometimes, lines to check into hotels about break my spirit. There may be only 3 people in line, and each has to check into one hotel room and there are no issues but it takes FOREVER.

I agree with onjgirl. I'm in my 50's, and things didn't used to take so long. The process of serving people in the public has just gotten SO LONG even though it's supposed to be quicker with debit and credit cards, scanners, etc.

Going through drive through bank teller lines, WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING??? If you have to do more than a half hour of business with the bank, go in. Don't make some poor sot sit behind you sandwiched in between you and the car behind her while you take so much time she misses her plane.

I'm in a time of my life where I'm not in a hurry, so waiting a few minutes is no problem whatsoever. It's when it stretches to an extreme.

Last point, green lights. It used to be people sat in their cars waiting for the light to turn green and when it did they'd go forward. Now, they sit in their cars diddling with their phones and could miss a whole cycle of the light. I wait a full 10 seconds before tapping the horn (that's a LONG time!!) and am surprised how many times I have to basically shake the driver ahead of me out of a stupor to get through a light.

Whew. I feel better now!

[Murk]

I think it's a combination of the glorification of ego and the inability for people to entertain themselves with simple things.

Waiting patiently could be filled with looking at the trees, birds, other people (not in a creepy way), appreciating art on the wall, making up stories in your head, etc. Instead, people need to use their time as if they're afraid if they don't shove ever second full their life won't be worth anything.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

This is a really interesting thread. I agree with almost everyone, although there have been many opinions expressed.

To the OP - I understand your frustration. But what about people who only need to know if a found purse has been turned in, and in order to get to interact with you they'd have to wait behind 3 customers - likely taking a half hour? Or what about the person who just needs to know what time the breakfast buffet opens?

Excellent point. I have been that person. Sometimes, I just call over everyone's head to the person at the desk, and ask my simple question.

But also, I suspect part of the problem is (and maybe the OP has some insight on this) that hotel chains are now slashing costs by cutting back on personnel, even hiring students, teenagers even (17-19 yrs. old), to handle everything; ONE PERSON to deal with ALL visitor issues!

These kids can get overwhelmed, and aren't able to juggle check-ins with simple requests ("where do I get drinking water for my room?" "My TV doesn't work", "I need help getting my key card to work", etc.) They get frustrated and fatigued easily, and become surly. The system isn't working, because basically untrained too-young people are being stuck in positions of responsibility, and don't have enough support staff to handle everything.

[Dopo]

I disagree with the idea that milenials feel "entitled"
Baby boomers are more likely to act like they are entitled to have "VIP treatment"

Almost every milenial I know is busting their behind going to school or working a low paying job

[Tominftl]

Everyone wants to be important. People show up at parties in fancy cars and make sure you see them . Who cares? Anyone can buy any car unless you have really bad credit.
I wait for my car from the valet and everybody's looking at their watch, like they're so important. I just think most people are living way above their means anymore and don't want to feel inferior .

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

The problem could be that your staffing is inadequate and unnecessary long lines are irritating people. So if there are 3 or 4 people in line then patience should be exhibited. But if your hotel is not staffing correctly and I show up to check in and there are 30 people in front of me and only, say for example, 2 of you checking people in, then I am going to get irritated and will communicate that to you.


I am, in fact, entitled, to no wait, or a reasonably short wait before checking in. Not because I am more important than others, but because I expect a place of business to staff properly for the demand that is expected.

I work at a hotel that has over 1,000 rooms that stays sold out most of the time. So even when we are fully staffed on those days when we are sold out, there are just going to be lines. The hotel type that I work for is a convention style hotel and when we have group or corporate clients in house and they are coming from the same city, often they come in large groups on one plane and hundreds of them are there to check in at one time.

Before my current property, I worked at a nother convention style hotel that had over 1800 rooms. That property was often sold out as well. For Valentine's Day 2015, our occupancy was only supposed to be 45%. In a bizarre turn of events, it seemed that everybody in town decided they wanted to book a room at our hotel at the last minute for Valentine's Day and everyone went on to third-party booking sites to book their rooms that afternoon. With that being the case, though we had a decent amount of staff, we had sold out that Valentine's Day within a matter of hours. And not only did all these people suddenly book rooms last minute for Valentine's Day, everyone also started showing up at 3. We literally had a line out the door from 3:30 p.m. to 11 pm. Customers were angry that they had to wait in line as long as they did but it really was not our fault that everyone decided to book and check in for Valentine's Day at the last minute.

With hotels it is tricky. While I get that you feel you should not have to wait in line after a certain amount of time, it's not a simple matter of checking everyone in or out and sending them on their way. Often times guests have issues with their reservations or their rooms. Guests may also have issues with their billing or some other problems that takes more than a few minutes to fix. The people who don't want to wait in line think that the agents are just screwing around but that is not the case. They have responsibilities beyond checking people in and out. For example, a few weeks ago we had a major group and house in one lady came to me with 20 rooms for her kids that needed to be checked in. It took me over an hour to check in those 20 rooms and I had to do most of them by myself. So when you are at a hotel standing in line, you better believe it is because there is some issue that has taken place that takes more than a few minutes to solve.

Lines can't always be avoided at hotels even with adequate staffing, especially if it is a large property with high occupancy. Also, hotels have a high turnover rate and there are many days where we are short-staffed because people call off and don't show up to work and we have to call around to find agents to come in on their off days to cover.

[The True CLT Native Gal]

Originally Posted by texan2yankee

I wonder how many of us see other people as humans anymore?

I was in the grocery store last week and a young man behind me kept huffing and sighing loudly and shaking his cart in frustration because I had lots of grocery items to check out and he was impatient having to wait in line for his turn at the checkout counter. His non-verbal aggressiveness was almost intimidating. If there weren't other people around, I would have been a bit frightened by his behavior.

There does seem to be a blindness in seeing the humanity in others these days and a loss in social manners....even in my state known for politeness.

I get what your saying just don't leave out people that have a couple of items and have to wait behind people with a cart full of groceries stacked up to the ceiling. Now that is very infuriating. Those people I let go ahead of me. Also nothing like be in the limited line and somebody can't read and has a cart full of groceries. Nothing fun about waiting behind them at all.