Stupid people make me…
I have noticed an uptick in the “I am tired of stupid people” memes and complaints on the internet. Usually it’s a supposedly funny “Stupid people make me angry” with a cartoon of a Minion or Warner Brothers character, or some cute animal with “You can’t fix stupid” on it.
All it shows me is that the person posting it either lacks empathy deficit or they are just a bit too full of themselves.
Life is pretty damn hard, and you have no idea in the world what that person has been dealing with when you came into contact with them. Maybe their mind isn’t on what they are doing because they have something more serious on their mind. Maybe the task you are asking them to complete is something they aren’t trained for, maybe they have gotten some terrible news…the list goes on and on.
was a single dad for most of my 20’s and early 30’s, working two jobs to keep the lights on. There are huge gaps of what I remember from that time because there are lots of things that wouldn’t make it from the short term memory to the long term memory. I would forget something while shopping and have to run back and get it, or forget my wallet in the car, or blank on my ATM pin number or any number of things.
When I would train people to work in juvenile corrections, I would remind them that the people they worked with had an entire history before they came into contact with staff, not just for their life, but maybe even that day. So, if someone blows up at you, keep in mind they may have spilled their breakfast, gotten bad news from their mom, had a dream that brought back something traumatic, etc… and their anger isn’t directed at the staff or even the situation. Same with when I trained people in call centers.
But I also bring that into my personal life. Maybe the person in front of me in line is trying to get through the day and just can’t quite do it that day. Maybe they got crushing news. Maybe they are in a job and were told their company is merging and they don’t know where the money will be coming from if they lose the job. Maybe they are just struggling with making it through the day. We all have moments where we don’t measure up, and wouldn’t it be nice if someone didn’t take that moment to mock us or kick us when we are down?
