Things That Really Bother Me

1. The drivers where I live are WORSE than the 90 year-old drivers in Boca. I mean, at least Grammie is driving the speed limit! People around here barely touch the pedal, it seems. I continue to be perplexed by this – there’s NO traffic! Why aren’t you driving the speed limit? It makes me nuts.
2. One of my co-workers is ALWAYS late to work -- nearly every day, I kid you not. And to make matters worse, she sends myself and my other co-worker an email message from her BlackBerry stating that she’s running late, her alarm didn’t go off, she had a wardrobe malfunction, her sinuses kept her up all night, her stomach is bothering her from eating too much cheese dip the night before and she’s stopping at Target to pick up Imodium, but they don’t open until 8 a.m. so that’s why she’s late…all of these are excuses she’s used. If I have to be here by or before 8 a.m., then what makes her so special that she can waltz in here 10, 15 or sometimes 30 minutes late?
3. People who are passive aggressive. I’m a “D” on the Disc test, and ENTJ on Meyers-Briggs. Basically this means that I tell it like it is, I don’t skirt around an issue. Unfortunately for me, there are A LOT of passive-aggressive types at work which is making it a little challenging for me. If you saw the recent season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO, my complaint is similar to that of Jerry Seinfeld: What’s with people saying “Having said that…”? I mean, why can’t you just say what you mean the first time around?
4. Speaking of Seinfeld…you know what else is bothering me? Low Talkers. There is a certain person I work with who has a terrible, terrible habit of talking too low. Most days I find myself wanting to shake her to get the words out of her louder and clearer. What’s odd is that I think she’s adapted to this style of talking for business purposes. And I think she finds it perfectly acceptable to talk that way.
5. People who think their project/deadline is the most important thing on the planet, and that I should dropeverythingI’mdoingrightnowtohelpthem. ‘Nuff said.
6. Strangers who try to involve you in their drama. I was at Kohl’s not too long ago picking up a couple of picture frames (holy cow, have you seen how cheap their frames are? And cute, too!). Anyway, as I get into the check-out line it becomes obvious there is a huge issue with the cashier. She doesn’t know what she’s doing and she’s slow. So I jump into another line, where a soccer mom is purchasing clothes for her son. A TON of clothes...which means removing the hangers, checking for security tags, folding the clothes…and then the Mom starts complaining that the price isn’t ringing up correctly. So she starts looking at me, like, “Can you believe this? I mean, that price is wrong, it wasn’t like that in the Sunday flyer, I can’t believe they don’t have their merchandise labeled properly"…yada yada yada.
7. Finally, and because this just happened to me this morning…People who creep up behind your desk at work without any warning. How about a “hello” or “knock knock”? No, instead, I get someone talking right off the bat about a new project as I am still in the middle of typing an email. It’s like…can you give me just a second here to finish this thought that I was in the middle of typing? And that thought being how much I can’t stand it when people like you creep up behind me??