Adults Behaving Badly

We grow weary of your nonsense.


Is there anything more annoying than dealing with an adult who has such a sense of entitlement that he or she routinely acts like an overgrown Veruca Salt? It's something that, I think I can say with a fair amount of certainty, one will have to deal with in any profession, any social circle.

In my job - a job in which I daily have to explain to people what they have done wrong to result in damage to their precious 1997 Corolla, or that they've been caught lying in order to try and save money - there are three kinds of "guilty" parties:

1. The "I know I did something wrong" crowd who was just hoping to not get caught. They will either accept their fate or fight you to try and put on a show, threatening lawyers and calls to the local news... but it's just embarrassment and you'll never hear from them again after you hang up.

2. The "I had no idea I was doing something wrong" group - they'll cry and give you some sob story, but usually you can just advise them to read some law somewhere and that's the end of it.

3. The "the rules don't apply to me" bunch. These are the guys (and they come in both genders) that really get to me. They are almost impossible. There is no logic, no cause-and-effect speech that will make them understand that they, too, have to be decent human beings. We are not all here to serve them. They will fight with you about anything and everything that doesn't result in the answer they want. For HOURS if you let them. I had a guy argue with me for 15 minutes the other day that Town A is RIGHT NEXT TO Town B, when in actuality they are on opposite sides of the state - one near Rhode Island and one closer to New Hampshire. Yes, I fought him on this for 15 minutes before realizing how stupid it was (at that point, my response became: "GO LOOK AT A MAP!")

There was another example of "better than the rules" behavior in my state very recently, where a school superintendent literally threw a hissy fit at a (taped) meeting because he was asked to stop being so rude. This is the SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT. And what's more, he's a man who insists on professionalism from all of those around him - apparently, he doesn't require it from himself. Needless to say, he is no longer superintendent, and now it's becoming clear that he was a bully for a good deal of his career.

What happened to "The Golden Rule"? I believe that there are more decent, conscientious people out there than not, but sometimes it seems like the world is being taken over by those who believe they're above the rules of simple human decency - commonly known as "Inconsiderate Assholes."

Sometimes I really miss working with kids. At least when they act like children, they have an excuse.