What's Your Pet Peeve?

Who of us doesn't have at least one pet peeve? I mean, come on - you know you do. My guess is we
all have more than one, maybe several. By definition a pet peeve is "something that a particular
person finds especially annoying". Now we're talking', right? Just think about it.

I have a few...........though I'll try not to wench about them ALL here. :) One, in particular, is poor
customer service. I guess since I worked as a Patient Advocate for many years, it's particularly
important to me. Seeing or hearing someone who does not provide good customer service to an
individual, causes me to want to step forward and say, "Hey, wait a minute here! This person
deserves to be treated better than this!" There is definitely something to the old adage that 'the
customer is always right'. We all know that this isn't true, of course. The customer is NOT always
right. But that's not what good customer service is all about. Unless a customer is being abusive
or threatening, then it's just good business (or good manners) for an employee or business owner to go the extra mile for a customer. As consumers that's the kind of treatment that speaks to us and keeps us going back to a particular business.

When I was working in hospital community relations and patient advocacy, the "customer"/patient was often stressed, worried, frightened. Anxiety, particularly in medical situations, runs high - and understandably. Therefore, when patients or their families had complaints or problems, just genuinely
listening to them and being compassionate was key. In most situations, people just want to know
that someone cares about their problems and what they're going through. This philosophy, in my
opinion, applies whether we're talking about patient care or trouble shooting a computer!! I fear that
we are in an era when good customer service is more rare than it once was. Sad.

Another thing that gets to me - and I know this is petty - is when I get a phone message from some-
one and all they say is, "This is ______________. Call me back, will ya'?" Yeah.....I probably
will but I would really rather you'd have given me some idea why/what you were calling about.
Wouldn't it have been helpful to me if you'd said, "This is _______________. Will you call me
back? I need to talk to you about _________________. ? I know. I said it was petty!!

I certainly am guilty from time to time of using popular slang. But doesn't it just drive you wild
when you see people on TV or maybe in person - who use the word "like" ALL THE TIME?!?! I mean, LIKE it just makes me LIKE crazy. It just LIKE makes me want to LIKE scream!

And most of us are pretty much physically attached to our cell phones these days. I have no
problem with that fact. What I cannot abide is the person in a restaurant or at a checkout counter who
carries on a loud, personal phone conversation to the extent that everyone within a mile radius must
experience the conversation. Use some basic good manners, will ya'? The rest of us don't care to
listen!!!

Ok, I guess I've saved the best for last. So here goes. The following comments are not meant to
offend anyone or even to be judgmental. Just part of who I am. Throughout school my favorite
subject(s) were always Grammar/Language Arts/Literature. That in no way makes me an expert
in the field of grammar. I can make errors, just like anyone else. For some reason, though, the
rules of the game always stuck with me. The tenses, prepositions, adverbs, adjectives, verbs and
helping verbs, subject and predicate, double negatives, etc., etc., etc. When talking with someone, the words swirl in my head like I'm diagramming a sentence! I just can't help it. When I hear the language being butchered, I get chills. I may love the person dearly, but I still get chills. However, I will NEVER correct someone's grammar. I'll just suffer in silence. :) And here's the reason, I may be fairly good at grammar, but to balance the issue, I'm sure I have lots of shortcomings or quirks that cause me to fall into the pet peeve category of someone else!

OK, that's it. I'm finished. I'll stop. It just feels good to vent a little. I guess there's a lesson to be
learned here. It's the little things in life that create differences. In the big things of life, we are as one. And the pet peeves, for the most part, are the little things.

See you on the porch! And wear a sweater!!