Venting Frustration: Slow People and Routine Tasks

[Janus]

Just a bit of a rant here:

I've come to the conclusion that slow people drive me crazy. For example, the guy that you are waiting on to cross the street and who ambles across like he's on a sight-seeing tour. I'm not talking about people who just can't walk any faster, like the elderly, but that guy in his 20's who walks like he's wading through molasses.

What makes me bring it up is that I ran afoul of three of them today. I had the day off, so I thought that I'd get some shopping done. While I was at it, I was going to return some cans (we have a 5 cent deposit on beverage containers in Oregon.) I just had a couple of paper bags worth, so thought that it wouldn't take long.

When I got to the store, 2 of the can return machines were out-of-order and the other two were in use. I set my bags down to wait. I slowly began to lose my patience. Not only did the people using the machines ahead of me have tons of can that they were returning, they were extremely slow.

The machines work by feeding a can at a time. The machine then reads the bar code to make sure it that is a returnable can, sends it to the bin and waits for the next can. I always have the next can ready the instant the machine is ready for it. These guys however, would put a can in, wait for the machine to take it, then dig in their bag for the next can, pull it out, stare at it for a while (why, I don't know), and then finally feed it into the machine.

After watching this for about 5 min, and seeing how slowly they were making headway through their cans, I gave up and left. I put the cans back in the car and went ahead with my shopping.

I get through my shopping and head to check out. You bag your own groceries here and each check out stand has two conveyor belts for your checked times which the cashier alternates between, so that two people can bag their groceries at the same time. The guy ahead of me had just a few items, and the gal ahead of him had quite a bit, but most of hers was already ready to bag.

The cashier went through the guy ahead of me pretty fast, and since the lady ahead of him still had quite a bit to bag, he started putting my stuff behind the other guy's. Big mistake. This guy had to be one of the slowest people on the planet. Not only did he move slow, but he didn't even use the conveyor belt to the move his items towards where he was bagging. (there's a button you can use for that). He was walking back and forth, picking up an item, carrying it back to his bag, then walking back for another item...

Meanwhile, my groceries are starting to pile up in front of the cashier, because he has no other place to put them. He finishes checking my items, I pay for them, and the guy ahead of me still hasn't finished bagging his few item. The gal that was in front of him is long done with hers, So the cashier starts lifting my stuff over to her now empty belt. I had half my stuff bagged before the other guy finally finished.

I just don't get how some people can be be so slow at doing the little mundane things. In my mind, these are the things that you try to get through as quickly as possible in order to save time for those things that it is worth spending time on.

End of Vent.

 

[DanP]

I just don't get how some people can be be so slow at doing the little mundane things. In my mind, these are the things that you try to get through as quickly as possible in order to save time for those things that it is worth spending time on.

End of Vent.

Get over it. They won't change, you won't change. So why waste your energy? Move on , and avoid what hassles you. And btw, what you think is important, others won't give a dime about it.

 

[Evo]

AAAArrgghh. You just made me relive some of my worst moments.

What's with the people that walk so slow that you can't figure out how they do not topple over between steps? And you're right, these are young, healthy looking people. What's worse, is two of them will walk side by side and you can't pass them.

A woman I used to work with that latched onto me would ask me to go to lunch with her. We always ended up at the drive thru of her bank. She would pull up to the window, then fix her hair and put on lipstick. Then she'd start sloooowly fumbling through her purse, looking for her checkbook. Then she'd start looking for a pen. Then she'd read the last 3 pages of her check register. Then she'd start writing her check veeerrryy slooowly. Then she'd start looking for her driver's license. Then she'd make an entry in her check register. then she would replace the pen in her purse. Then she would replace her checkbook. Then she'd recheck her hair and lipstick. Then she'd roll down her window, look at her check again, then hit the button to get a tube sent from the teller who has slipped into a coma while waiting.

THEN, she get's her money. And she counts it sloowly, 3 times. Then she separates it into different piles and starts folding them and THEN placing different wads into different parts of her purse. (I found out that she hides money from her husband). Then she rumages through her purse for cigarettes, finds them, manages to get one out. Looks at it, decides to place it into her mouth. THEN she starts looking for her matches. By this time there is a long line of angry people trying to pull out of line from behind us and get to another teller and honking their horns. then she gets all upset, clueless as to why all of these people are being so rude to her.

There have been few people in my life that I just point blank had to burn my bridges with and tell them I could not go anywhere with them for the sake of my sanity. Luckily, she was shocked and refused to talk to me again.

 

[Newai]

Recently, I began driving the speed limit. Exactly. Sesame Street's the Count would go insane trying to count all those middle fingers. But apart from the reactions from everyone else hurrying by, I noticed that I wasn't feeling quite so angry or irritable when I stopped hurrying through my day to day.

Uh, sorry Janus if I pissed you off recently. :tongue:

 

[DanP]

Luckily, she was shocked and refused to talk to me again.

I knew there was a reason why I always liked you .

 

[Ben Niehoff]

What annoys me the most are people who stop to talk in bottleneck areas. Don't stop in the doorway! Go all the way inside or all the way outside, and then move over out of the way to have your conversation.

 

[nucleargirl]

hm... I'm pretty slow sometimes... lol! the other day I was kind of just standing there, not even walking! I was trying to decide what to do next - in my head. for some reason I couldn't decide! and so I stopped. to think. haha... luckily there wasnt anyone walking behind me!

 

[turbo]

We have some hilly, twisty roads around here, and the worst drivers are the passive-aggressive jerks that insist on driving 5-10 mph below the speed limit most of the time when condition clearly warrant the top allowable speed, and then speed up to the speed limit when you might have the opportunity to pass them. Those jerks are killers, and when they precipitate rash behavior on the part of other drivers, they never get blamed for the carnage.

As a long-time biker (40+ years) I have witnessed dangerous behavior like this more times than I can count. With a hopped-up bike (I did my own mods and tuning) I could generally pass the creeps very quickly and safely in short distances. Pissed-off drivers in under-powered cars and trucks did not have that option.

 

[DanP]

What annoys me the most are people who stop to talk in bottleneck areas. Don't stop in the doorway!

One day I heard someone say the same thing about the persons who take the elevator for 1 floor. The point is, we never know why someone stops in a doorway, or takes the elevator for one floor only. We think we know. But maybe, the person who took the elevator for 1 floor has arthritic knees. Or gout. Just get around them. An agile person will just make way around them or if he is a bit more aggressive it will just say "Im sorry" and gently guide them out of its way.

 

[mugaliens]

What annoys me the most are people who stop to talk in bottleneck areas. Don't stop in the doorway! Go all the way inside or all the way outside, and then move over out of the way to have your conversation.

Grr... One of my pet peeves, as well, and yes, particularly at choke points such as doors and narrow intersections where I can't simply dodge around them.

Interestingly, more than one person has remarked that I have an uncanny ability to breeze through a crowded room like it was empty, while they feel stuck like ball bearings in a pachinko machine. I just look at the currents so as to spot where the holes will open up, then head in that direction.

 

[Andre]

I'd advise you all not to go and live in Soutern France where they seem to exploit time dilation extremely well, even without approaching c. They just slow the time. Nothing moves there, except cars with a Toulouse license plate.

 

[DanP]

I'd advise you all not to go and live in Soutern France where they seem to exploit time dilation extremely well, even without approaching c. They just slow the time. Nothing moves there, except cars with a Toulouse license plate.

Yes, purely mirage! The better to follow me, you should actually follow me into the South, and you will see I am right. You have only to look at that Lucifer's own country, where the sun transmogrifies everything, and magnifies it beyond life-size. The little hills of Provence are no bigger than the Butte Montmartre, but they will loom up like the Rocky Mountains; the Square House at Nimes—a mere model to put on your sideboard—will seem grander than St. Peter's.

Daudet, Tartarin of Tarascon

 

[Janus]

Get over it. They won't change, you won't change. So why waste your energy? Move on , and avoid what hassles you. And btw, what you think is important, others won't give a dime about it.

If it were just their own time they were wasting, I wouldn't give it a thought, but when its my time... The problem is that you can't avoid them. I avoided wasting my time returning cans, but only at the expense of not being able to return them at all. I couldn't avoid the guy in the check out line, as I didn't know that he was going to be so slow until it was too late.

 

[DanP]

If it were just their own time they were wasting, I wouldn't give it a thought, but when its my time... The problem is that you can't avoid them. I avoided wasting my time returning cans, but only at the expense of not being able to return them at all. I couldn't avoid the guy in the check out line, as I didn't know that he was going to be so slow until it was too late.

Yeah, but what the hell can we do ? Not too much, those bums are everywhere. So I personally got over it.

 

[lisab]

If it were just their own time they were wasting, I wouldn't give it a thought, but when its my time... The problem is that you can't avoid them. I avoided wasting my time returning cans, but only at the expense of not being able to return them at all. I couldn't avoid the guy in the check out line, as I didn't know that he was going to be so slow until it was too late.

One thing I've found to avoid people of all speeds: do things early in the morning. And I mean early (I'm a morning person ). If the store opens at 7:00, be in there by 7:01. Most slow people are just getting around to going to bed, at that time of day.

 

[rhody]

AAAArrgghh. You just made me relive some of my worst moments.

What's with the people that walk so slow that you can't figure out how they do not topple over between steps? And you're right, these are young, healthy looking people. What's worse, is two of them will walk side by side and you can't pass them.

A woman I used to work with that latched onto me would ask me to go to lunch with her. We always ended up at the drive thru of her bank. She would pull up to the window, then fix her hair and put on lipstick. Then she'd start sloooowly fumbling through her purse, looking for her checkbook. Then she'd start looking for a pen. Then she'd read the last 3 pages of her check register. Then she'd start writing her check veeerrryy slooowly. Then she'd start looking for her driver's license. Then she'd make an entry in her check register. then she would replace the pen in her purse. Then she would replace her checkbook. Then she'd recheck her hair and lipstick. Then she'd roll down her window, look at her check again, then hit the button to get a tube sent from the teller who has slipped into a coma while waiting.

THEN, she get's her money. And she counts it sloowly, 3 times. Then she separates it into different piles and starts folding them and THEN placing different wads into different parts of her purse. (I found out that she hides money from her husband). Then she rumages through her purse for cigarettes, finds them, manages to get one out. Looks at it, decides to place it into her mouth. THEN she starts looking for her matches. By this time there is a long line of angry people trying to pull out of line from behind us and get to another teller and honking their horns. then she gets all upset, clueless as to why all of these people are being so rude to her.

There have been few people in my life that I just point blank had to burn my bridges with and tell them I could not go anywhere with them for the sake of my sanity. Luckily, she was shocked and refused to talk to me again.

Sorry Evo,

I just couldn't resist, but she sounds like classic OCD to me, your opinion ?

Rhody...

 

[leroyjenkens]

I hate people who don't walk quickly at a pedestrian crossing in a parking lot. There are some unwritten rules, that I unwrote, for pedestrian crossing etiquette.
You don't immediately cross, assuming the driver will stop. You look both ways, like you're crossing the street; if a car is coming, you don't immediately start walking across in front of them. You wait until you see he's coming to a stop, give a little wave or whatever, then cross. You don't cross at an angle, you go straight across. It's preferable if you walk quickly across. Don't run or anything ridiculous like that, but make an effort to at least slightly increase your speed. You don't even have to increase your speed, you can just make it appear like you're walking faster. Some people opt for this strategy: they wait for you to stop and do a little wave as they start to jog across, but they don't keep jogging, they jog for like one or two steps, then begin to walk. That gave the appearance that they hurried to get across to not waste your time, when in fact, they didn't get there any faster than they would had they walked the whole way.

 

[Evo]

Sorry Evo,

I just couldn't resist, but she sounds like classic OCD to me, your opinion ?

Rhody...

Definitely OCD and on some major tranquilizers, the woman could barely function.

 

[waht]

Gawd, my blood boils when I read this thread.

 

[stevenb]

I definitely get why everyone here is bothered by slow people, but I think perhaps you are all missing an opportunity. I've learned to keep any problems I'm working on with me, either mentally, on my ipod, or in my backpack. In any downtime, whether it be waiting in lines, at the doctor's office, driving in traffic jams, waiting for my wife etc, I work on a problem. Before long, I'm upset that my time was not held up even more.

This is one of many strategies one can employ to outsmart Murphy's Law. Give Murphy a Catch-22 option whenever you can. This won't help a typical person, but given the audience here (mathematicians, scientists, engineers etc.), it seems like a reasonable thing to mention.

I've done this for over 20 years now; however, my recent purchase of an ipod offers the opportunity to read a book (via Kindle), or to watch lectures that I've downloaded. Now, I'm even more upset when people are not holding me up. I'm on the verge of becoming obsessed with finding people that will hold me up, rather than trying to avoid them.

Damn, now that I think about it, perhaps this is Murphy's new strategy.

 

[cristo]

I hate people who don't walk quickly at a pedestrian crossing in a parking lot. There are some unwritten rules, that I unwrote, for pedestrian crossing etiquette.

Your unwritten rules presume that the car has the right of way, and the driver is doing the pedestrian a favour by letting him cross. This is not true.

 

[cronxeh]

Slow people piss me off. Nuff said.

Actually no, not nuff has been said. They piss me off when they drive at 60mph on the highway or slow down and let others merge in from service lanes. They piss me off when they are so.. damn.. SLOW. I can't drive below 70 mph. I just can't. I start raging out and cursing when I am forced to slam my breaks because someone is middle lane going speedlimit.

Or when they are crossing the street. They have the green, I have to wait. Ok. But then they take 15 seconds to cross 20 feet of crosswalk. Are you kidding me?!

 

[Proton Soup]

sometimes when i get ear congestion, i am one of these slow people. it is extremely frustrating because often it is difficult just to put two thoughts together. and i know what is happening, and can't do a damn thing about it.

 

[cristo]

I start raging out and cursing when I am forced to slam my breaks because someone is middle lane going speedlimit.

You aren't "forced" to slam on your brakes: if you see a slower moving vehicle in your lane up ahead you either gradually slow down, or you move into the offside lane to overtake. Likely they are driving at the speed limit in the middle lane since there are trucks or other vehicles driving slower in the nearside lane.

 

[cronxeh]

You aren't "forced" to slam on your brakes: if you see a slower moving vehicle in your lane up ahead you either gradually slow down, or you move into the offside lane to overtake. Likely they are driving at the speed limit in the middle lane since there are trucks or other vehicles driving slower in the nearside lane.

But this is the picture I see in front of me. Like a flock of birds banding together to keep warm, these 'people' bunch together on the highway and all go at 50 mph. The fast moving cars are all tailgating the slow cars, bunching together into this blob that is moving at speed limit. There are no cars in front of them, no cops in the blob, no cops ahead. Its just.. emergence of stupidity.

 

[cristo]

But this is the picture I see in front of me. Like a flock of birds banding together to keep warm, these 'people' bunch together on the highway and all go at 50 mph. The fast moving cars are all tailgating the slow cars, bunching together into this blob that is moving at speed limit. There are no cars in front of them, no cops in the blob, no cops ahead. Its just.. emergence of stupidity.

Then it seems like all the people in this scenario have never been taught how to drive. The slower drivers should not be taking up all the lanes: the offside lane should be used either by someone who is driving much faster than everyone, and so is never going to be overtaken, or should be used only by people overtaking slower moving traffic. The faster drivers should not be tailgating anywhere, especially on a highway. They should move into the overtaking lane and wait for it to be clear.

 

[cronxeh]

Welcome to New York City. Now go home.

The smallest unit of time. It's the time between when the traffic light in front of you turns green and when the cab driver behind you leans on the horn.

Drivers have the right of way over pedestrians whom they do not visibly acknowledge having seen.

 

[hypatia]

I just got home from a concert, when it ended, I was trapped in a group of slow moving people. I was cold, hungry and getting cranky, but the people I was with didn't seem to mind. The 20 minute walk to the car took almost a hour...grrr...shakes fist at slow people.

 

[DanP]

But this is the picture I see in front of me. Like a flock of birds banding together to keep warm, these 'people' bunch together on the highway and all go at 50 mph. The fast moving cars are all tailgating the slow cars, bunching together into this blob that is moving at speed limit. There are no cars in front of them, no cops in the blob, no cops ahead. Its just.. emergence of stupidity.

You shouldn't be concerned with what speed other ppl drive. It is not something you should have any control over it, or anything to say. They drive as they want, in legal speed limits. Its their right.

Learn to drive well, overtake aggressively in any situation and you'll have your "free" road to run with whatever speed you want.

 

[DanP]

I just got home from a concert, when it ended, I was trapped in a group of slow moving people. I was cold, hungry and getting cranky, but the people I was with didn't seem to mind. The 20 minute walk to the car took almost a hour...grrr...shakes fist at slow people.

Why did you stayed the with the group ? You should have split and move. Maybe you should shake the fist to yourself for not doing it :P

 

[DanP]

I hate people who don't walk quickly at a pedestrian crossing in a parking lot. There are some unwritten rules, that I unwrote, for pedestrian crossing etiquette.
You don't immediately cross, assuming the driver will stop.

Dont stop. Hit me on a crossing lane, and Ill guarantee you, my lawyers will eat you alive. After you'll face criminal charges of course, should you do physical damage, or kill someone. I am sure the judge will be thrilled to listen to your "pedestrian etiquette"

 

[cronxeh]

Dont stop. Hit me on a crossing lane, and Ill guarantee you, my lawyers will eat you alive. After you'll face criminal charges of course, should you do physical damage, or kill someone. I am sure the judge will be thrilled to listen to your "pedestrian etiquette"

Ahahah. This just gave me a flashback to few years ago when I was sitting on street corner, as usual, and this guy (lets call him a New Yorker) was crossing the crosswalk, and this other guy was making a turn, and I guess they did not negotiate or make eyecontact or whatnot, and the driver runs into the guy, his left front wheel sliding onto the right foot of the guy. The funny thing is, the pedestrian turns into him, and punches the windshield on driver side, cursing and yelling. I was like OHYEAH!

Well cops got there, and guess what. Punching a window is a no-no. That was a criminal mischief. The guy received a ticket from cops, an icepack from us, and a stern talking to. The driver did not get any tickets, but there was a police report generated.

 

[Jack21222]

One day I heard someone say the same thing about the persons who take the elevator for 1 floor. The point is, we never know why someone stops in a doorway, or takes the elevator for one floor only. We think we know. But maybe, the person who took the elevator for 1 floor has arthritic knees. Or gout. Just get around them. An agile person will just make way around them or if he is a bit more aggressive it will just say "Im sorry" and gently guide them out of its way.

I've never heard anybody complain about taking the elevator for one floor. I do that all the time, and there is usually a good reason behind it. In some cases, the stairs are NOWHERE NEAR the elevator. The elevator will put me right at the door, while the steps are at the other end of the building. Another reason I would take the elevator is if I don't know where the stairs are. Instead of wandering around like a lost puppy dog looking for the stairs, it's easier to take the elevator.

 

[Ken Natton]

I must confess to belonging to the group that gets very frustrated at other people dawdling and getting in my way, when they have all the time in the world and I have none. And I have blood pressure issues and shouldn’t allow myself to get stressed. But however many times I resolve to not to let it get to me, when the situation arises, it’s nearly impossible to abide by that. One of my pet hates is in a busy department store, for example, riding a heavily laden escalator. Somebody ahead of you steps off and then immediately stops. And then they wonder why everyone behind them isn’t happy with them.

It was thus quite therapeutic when a former colleague of mine, sat one late evening in the bar, had a group of us in fits of laughter relating a story about another colleague, whom we all knew to be one of these painfully slow people, at the cashpoint – ATM – being repeatedly turned down, trying different cards, turning round with a cheerful “Oh dear!” each time he took his card out and immediately plugged it back in again, while an ever growing queue of people behind him got steadily more agitated.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Your unwritten rules presume that the car has the right of way, and the driver is doing the pedestrian a favour by letting him cross. This is not true.

No, it doesn't presume that at all. It's just courtesy.

Dont stop. Hit me on a crossing lane, and Ill guarantee you, my lawyers will eat you alive. After you'll face criminal charges of course, should you do physical damage, or kill someone. I am sure the judge will be thrilled to listen to your "pedestrian etiquette"

Calm down, killer. This was just how people should act to be courteous towards one another. Just because you have the right of way, doesn't mean you can't wave to be courteous.
I was pointing out the "don't just walk across" part because people will not even look at you as they walk across, not speeding up at all, like you're not even there. That's just rude, I don't care if you have the right of way or not.
But I'm glad you're prepared to let somebody run you over just so you can sue them. Good trade; you lose use of your legs and they go to jail. Awesome, everyone wins.