Responding To Complaints

I’m not the Complaint Department

I’ve come to realize that I really dislike complaints sent in my direction…

Maybe I’m more sensitive than others, but I really don’t have much to base this on. In any case, I’ll usually respond to stop complaints from happening. Unfortunately it isn’t always the response the other person might have hoped for though.

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I’ll change…

Within constraints and logic.

If the other person is truly upset that I’ve left something in the refrigerator too long (at home or at work), and this seems like a reasonable beef, I can change to eat the oldest food first.

Picking up my own clothes – perhaps not too much to ask.

Dealing with the toilet seat. Ahh, this one is perhaps more complex than just putting down the seat… If it’s gross to have the seat up, it’s only slightly less gross to have the cover up as well. If there’s some seat maneuvering to do, let’s make it universal. The “stable” state of the toilet should be both the seat and the cover down. Then we all have to lift something and put it back down.

To argue otherwise suggests that it isn’t the seat that’s the issue, but having to take action. (and why is the seat down better than leaving the seat where it is?-)

I’ll give up…

If I feel I am unable to avoid a complaint, I might just stop doing whatever it is that receives the complaint.

Let’s suppose that a complaint is registered for doing something wrong – anything.

Ok, let’s not do that anymore.

But what happens when a complaint is registered for not doing that thing?

Well – there isn’t much left to do. If a complaint is going to come in no matter what, I’d rather be on the side of not doing something to earn the complaint than doing something and still getting a complaint;-)

Turning off the volume…

This is really the end of the line on complaints.

Perhaps I like to do something, and that something draws complaints… All I can do is ignore the complaints.

And that leads to…

Doing things that I love

Is there any stronger way to say that you are living life with purpose – than that you do the things you love to do even if part of the world doesn’t think you should be and is willing to complain about it?

(And to be complete here, I don’t mean that the things you do should be objectionable. We’re talking “I don’t think you should waste your time painting” versus “I don’t think you should be flinging cats around by the tail.”)

Saying more

You can’t change the complainer, and their words say more about them than they say about you..

So do the best you can to be your best.