Angry Bean Blog

I am guilty of not listening as much as anybody else I suppose. But people don’t listen and I can prove it. My whole life I have felt disregarded by others even when I have something worthwhile to say or can provide helpful information. This used to hurt my feelings and make me feel a bit worthless. But at my age I have come to realize that people even those you are close to will not listen to you 100% of the time. I now have learned to use this to my advantage instead of feeling sorry for myself. My father in law and my boss are notorious for not listening when I speak or anyone for that matter. My father in law will ask you the same question literally 3 times!

This is how I have fun at their expense. When I am asked the same shit over and over I change my reply each time or pretend that I did not even hear them. Also you can use this to get your way. For instance I go to my boss and say I have to leave early today due to a doctors appointment or what ever and then I say I told you about it last week you must have forgot. Its also fun to watch someone struggle with a task or do something the hard way after you told them a short cut or offered your help cause they ignored you.

I often wondered why some people command attention when they speak. What makes certain people pay attention? I am a short, soft spoken white female with nothing special about me. I have noticed that taller white males often get listened to. Also people with money or stature can gain attention of their point of view. And of course those who are exceptionally attractive. These same “special” people are often the ones who will walk right up to you and another person who are obviously in the middle of a conversation and just start talking. And believe it or not at least one of the people that were just speaking to each other will stop and listen to this oblivious jerk. If anyone reading this has been a victim of this sort of rudeness, ignore the jerk until you finish the 1st conversation you were having.

I used to manage this restaurant a few years ago and this is where I encountered an endless stream of people who did not listen. Of course it was frustrating cause you had to waste so…much time repeating yourself. So to prevent myself from going ape on some of these people I learned to have fun with it as well. We had a lot of phone business and when answering the phone we had to say thank you for calling…is this carry out or delivery? 99% of people would ever answer the question and would start saying their order or best yet start asking people in their house what they wanted to eat. So not only did I have to repeat the original question but had to sit through this idiot gathering an order from everyone. I never understood why didn’t they do that before they placed the phone call. The company decided to change their phone greeting to a 17 word phrase. I campaigned against this change to my boss stating that no one listens to the short phrase we say now!

I refused to say the 17 word phrase and made one of my own. I like mine better, “Thank you for calling the hell hole how can I help you?” I must have done that at least 10 times and not 1 person noticed. There’s my proof. Try it out at your job and see how long before you get caught. It was a lot of fun for me; it gave me a break from this overly formal world we live in.