Why do people whine about their bosses and employers so much? (credit, degrees)
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People like to blame their laziness on other people
in my experience, most of those people have been conservatives (so much for personal responsibility)
You finish your education believing you have skills which will earn you a better paycheck; that you are going to "sell" your time and attention based upon the intrinsic value of those skills.
What you quickly need to learn is that employers view your paycheck as compensation in return for surrendering your complete obedience in return for "compensation" -- usually in the form of a straight salary that allows them more or less unlimited control of most of your day, and quite likely occasional demands outside that time frame with no direct or immediate reward.
And the frustration intensifies when you learn that the principal goal of management is to cram further work -- most of it requiring far less skill -- into your day, and that the path upward requires that you embrace that culture; eventually doing unto your subordinates (when you acquire them) what you hate having done to you. And the process only becomes more intense in the "up or out" world of corporate life.
During the years of your development, you usually could easily determine where you stood; now, as someone else here put it, the only grades given out are 'D' and 'F'. Performance reviews often turn into a criticism of the parts of your personal style of working and living which you are most resistant toward changing.
In short, you've acquired at least 12, often 16, and possibly more years of education -- only to find that your day now involves more drudgery than when you were a third-grader.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 08-14-2015 at 12:18 PM..
Because they can't whine and complain about how poor a job they are doing themselves. The automatic "It's someone else's fault" mechanism would kick on.
My guess is that most people with so-so managers just say nothing and people who talk about how great their boss is are looked at as being condescending, so they also say nothing.
Complainers are just louder, generally speaking, as well.
I worked for one company that had a few bad people, but I didn't work directly under them, so it didn't affect me in any way. But everyone in the office knew of their bad antics (some of us joked that we'd write a book similar to The Devil Wears Prada and put our actual stories in the book). Even 20 years later, I know some of the more epic stories STILL get told to all the new employees. I'll get emails from my former co-workers occasionally saying, "Guess what story we talked about today at lunch with a new guy that just started this week?!"
I worked for a company where a few of us had a horrible manager. We all dreaded going to work everyday and we dreaded how our manager was going to treat us. Fortunately, I was able to leave that company and now I have a great boss who listens to us and values the work we put forward. I still talk to my old coworkers and they still complain because nothing has changed.
People really do get crappy bosses and some people really do work crappy jobs because it is what allows them to pay their bills for the time being until something better comes along.
So... the OP has been treated with nothing but dignity and respect by his employers and has no reason to complain about them. Therefore, everyone else who complains about their own employer is a "whiner."
Right... So, andywire, has it ever crossed your mind that perhaps not everyone else has been treated with nothing but dignity and respect throughout their careers? Have you considered the possibility that not everyone has had the exact same life experiences as your own? And have you considered how you'd react - how much "whining" you'd do - if you'd instead been abused, humiliated, and thrown under the bus like so many people are every day in our glorious corporate state?
The original post and the mindset it illustrates is just another stunning example of the complete lack of empathy that afflicts this nation. "I don't like it" therefore it must be wrong... and "It didn't happen to me" so it must never have happened. Unreal.
I can't relate with the way most people describe their workplace and employers. I was just thinking about this today though... I've worked for a considerable number of employers in my 10 year run in the private sector. I have been treated with nothing but dignity and respect. So when I hear people complain about their bosses, I'm left dumbfound.
It seems as though people like to exaggerate how awful their employers are. Or maybe I just have not worked for a crappy employer yet.
Try scoping out www.angry.net for some stories.....(Anger central) and believe you me, there's some stories that'll put your hair on end..
Some even from me...(Hint Bosses in General)
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