The Old Curmudgeon

Many people read my blog, Twitter feed and Facebook posts and decide I am just an old curmudgeon.

I cannot deny it, that is the way it seems.  But why am I this way?  To answer that you have to look at what I grumble about and why.

I think that as I have become older I have become less accepting of excuses and fob offs.  It is all too often that we as nation don't complain about shoddy goods, services or treatment.  Why not?  After all we are paying for these things and ought to be satisfied with what we get.

I have commented in the past on organisations which make green claims, in the aid of marketing, but fail to follow them up in practice.  Only last year I purchased some slippers from such a company - these lasted almost six months before falling apart!  In the past I may have been tempted to just throw them away and buy a new pair, but then how would they know that their actions did not meet up with their claims?  I returned them for a refund, went elsewhere and bought some more slippers which cost half as much and are lasting much better - so you can't even say I bought cheap and should expect no more.  I paid quality price but got the lowest quality available it seems.

The same appears to apply to service  - the number of restaurants nowadays who hand you the card payment machine and the first question is whether you wish to add a gratuity to your bill.  As far as I am concerned, if I have had an ordinary meal, served in an ordinary way then I don't feel I should be asked. That is after all what I am paying for. If I have had an exceptional meal or very good service then I will leave a tip without being prompted.  Most likely I will also leave cash as I don't trust the management to pass the tips from card payments on to the staff at all, never mind to the individual who provided the good service.

At least we are not yet like America in this country, where failure to leave an acceptable tip is likely to result in you being run out of town!

It is about time for us to stand up for our rights - if that is curmudgeonly then so be it.

Before I close, I will preempt the question that is likely to come my way - why do I complain about the current Public Sector workers actions?  The issue here is that they are asking for what is presently impossible as there is not enough money in the economy to protect their pensions, salaries and the jobs of all their colleagues at the same time.  Something has to give and by standing up for their rights they are damaging those of other people.

At the local Toyota plant, when times were hard the workforce went on to reduced hours which resulted in less pay for the period.  However in doing this the management were able to minimise the number of redundancies that had to be made.  Less money but they still kept their job.

Someone wrote a very telling comment in the paper recently.  Will the teachers explain to their students that when they leave school they will have to pay exorbitant taxes in order to fund the lifestyle of those who taught them - I doubt it.

Finally, because I am British and we are good at this sort of thing I shall complain about the weather!  I thought it was supposed to be summer and the climate is getting hotter as a result of me driving my car.  Well it is hiding itself well, and due to the torrential rain predicted for later today I may choose to use my car rather than walk at lunchtime!!