Special Snowflake Stories

[Virg]

norrina wrote:

"Neighbors unparked one vehicle then left it to idle completely blocking the street through our townhome community while they chatted and enjoyed a cigarette"

I get the other two things you commented on, but I'm not sure why this is a problem.  From your post it appears that the driver was present with the vehicle the whole time, so I can presume that if anyone drove up he could move immediately.  Given that and the fact that nobody was inconvenienced, I can't see this rising to Special Snowflake levels.

Virg

[PeterM]

norrina wrote:

"Neighbors unparked one vehicle then left it to idle completely blocking the street through our townhome community while they chatted and enjoyed a cigarette"

I get the other two things you commented on, but I'm not sure why this is a problem.  From your post it appears that the driver was present with the vehicle the whole time, so I can presume that if anyone drove up he could move immediately.  Given that and the fact that nobody was inconvenienced, I can't see this rising to Special Snowflake levels.

Virg

I have a problem with it. The road is for driving, not for parking and chatting. It's a minor issue if no one was actually inconvenienced, but I still think it's wrong. Especially considering they left a parking spot in order to sit in the road and chat.

[Katana_Geldar]

People do that a lot in shopping centres. If the said friend is so important to talk to, pull over and park.

[violetminnow]

Okay, I didn't know if this was Snowflake Material or Impossible Request Material.  I chose snowflake because the patron's behavior just got more and more entitled as the week went  on.  (And also, he indirectly was the cause of me getting chewed out--and getting everyone else chewed out--for gossip.)

Background:  Because of the skyhigh incidence of theft of certain magazines, newspapers and journals, we have to keep them behind the desk and put dummy copies on the shelves.  The patrons have to ask for these and leave ID (usually their library cards) until they have finished with the item and returned it to us.  Until we instituted this system, even the local paper (which we spend about $200 monthly for a ten paper subscription) was gone before noon the same day we set them out in the reading area.

Now, MOST people have library cards that they leave with us.  But then there are those special snowflakes who I can only surmise, get library cards, stuff them in their wallets and purses, then go home and remove the library card and either cut it up for an art project or say "This is much too valuable an item to carry around in my wallet/purse.  I shall leave it at home whenever I go to the library."  These are the people who have to produce a picture ID so we can give them the number of the library card they don't think they need to check books out or get on the computer. 

So at the beginning of this week, two different men and a copy of the same issue of the same magazine.  They both gave their driver's licenses to one of my young coworkers.  You can see where this is going.  Not to excuse the guys, but Monday (and the rest of the week for that matter) saw the heaviest concentration of people with Actual Information Requests ever...in addition to the usual overload of people who want the computers to cook dinner for them and don't understand why this can't happen.  So, very busy.  Mr. Jones returned HIS copy of the magazine and received his driver's license.  When Mr. Smith returned with HIS copy, you guessed it...we learned that my young coworker had inadvertantly given Mr. Smith's ID to Mr. Jones. 

Mr. Smith promptly had a meltdown about how stupid we are and how irresponsible and how we didn't give a darn about him or his troubles and on and on...this, despite the fact that one coworker was paging Mr. Jones, coworker two was apologizing profusely for the error and I was on the phone calling everyone we could think of (everyone in the phone book with the last name Jones, the DMV, 4ll and even the condo complex where Mr. Jones lived, trying t track him down.)

Inspite of this, we had to get one of the higher ups to talk to him where he reiterated how no one was owning up to doing this (again, despite the fact that coworker was saying over and over, Mr. Smith, I am so sorry.  It was totally my fault) and that none of us were trying to help him.  (Inspite of the fact that we were cold calling total strangers and asking if they were related to Aloyuisius Jones.)  He wanted our heads on platters.  He wanted us fired!  We targeted him personally.

The supervisor, being the person she is, symathized with him completely, chastized us for even taking ID cards ("This poor man has lost a $75 license because you are all afraid of losing a two dollar magazine!") and told him we would pay to replace his license if we couldn't get Mr. Jones.

Tuesday, Mr. Smith called and promptly sailed into another tirade about how irresponsible we are, how inept, how mean and uncaring and so on....a coworker sent around an email advising us all of what Mr. Smith had said.  At that point I was annoyed that my team's mistake was being recited as us being evil and inept and lazy.  So I sent out an email that stated as much and added "I really do not know what more he can expect.  We have done X, Y, AND Z, we have all apologized for doing this, even those of us who didn't, we have offered the following solutions, we are going to pay for his license and short of getting Mr. Jones' picture blown up and stapled to every telephone pole, I don't know more he expects.  We are already groveling, does he want us all to get fired as well?  I understand he is upset, I would be, too, but accusing people of targeting him or deliberately losing the card is unfair and the implication that we don't care and won't take responsibility is patently untrue."

Five minutes later the Sympathizing Supervisor lit into me for "unprofessionally gossiping" about Mr. Smith and I should be a lot more careful to keep my negativity to myself.

She then called Mr. Smith invited him in and gave him the money to buy a new license. 

Yesterday Mr. Jones was in.  When my young coworker saw him, he wept with joy, related the story and Mr. Jones went wide eyed.  He's an elderly, frail and really very sweet guy.  He glanced at the license and said "I had no idea!  Guess it's a good thing I didn't get into an accident!"

He got his license back and I called Mr. Smith. 

Mr Smith was overjoyed, but hesitated when I said "Now, I know you already got your new license, but I thought you would want this one back right away so you could do with it as you see fit."  "Well, I haven't had the chance to go and get my new card," he finally said "but I don't think I should have to give the money back.  I lost time from work, pain and suffering..."  "Oh," I told him "no, we want you to keep the money.  We just wanted you to know that Mr. Jones was back and that he didn't even realize he had your card and he's returned it and we have it for you."  "Oh, okay!  Gee thanks.  You people really went the extra mile for me!"

Sure we did.  We put up with being called irresponsible (bad names), being accused of purposely stealing your ID, being threatened with being fired and generally being railed at by a supervisor.  YOU got your card back, plus almost one hundred dollars that you can now spend on whatever you like.

P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

I'm not sure if I agree that Mr. Smith was in the wrong. He certainly had an inappropriately strong and angry reaction, but if I was in the same situation I would be quietly panicking and not sleeping at all. Losing your ID, because someone didn't bother to check the picture is a major mistake. By your descriptions of the two men, it certainly seems that they didn't look alike at all.

This mistake could lead to robbery or identity theft, both of which can leave you with years of problems. He shouldn't have been abusive in his language to anyone, but it is a problem which in it's scale would lead me to forgive a uncontrolled reaction.

[Kariachi]

norrina wrote:

"Neighbors unparked one vehicle then left it to idle completely blocking the street through our townhome community while they chatted and enjoyed a cigarette"

I get the other two things you commented on, but I'm not sure why this is a problem.  From your post it appears that the driver was present with the vehicle the whole time, so I can presume that if anyone drove up he could move immediately.  Given that and the fact that nobody was inconvenienced, I can't see this rising to Special Snowflake levels.

Virg

The local cops do that all the time and I can tell you that even if they move when someone drives up it's still annoying as hedge.

Doesn't help that that's the only time they stop at our intersection. The occupied house at it belongs to the sheriff's brother, so if he's doing yard-work they'll park in the road and chat with him for upwards of a half hour. Otherwise they blow through our 4-way stop like it wasn't even there.

Lucky we're out of the way, rural, and only have about 90 residents, or somebody would've been hurt by now.

[BabyMama]

norrina wrote:

"Neighbors unparked one vehicle then left it to idle completely blocking the street through our townhome community while they chatted and enjoyed a cigarette"

I get the other two things you commented on, but I'm not sure why this is a problem.  From your post it appears that the driver was present with the vehicle the whole time, so I can presume that if anyone drove up he could move immediately.  Given that and the fact that nobody was inconvenienced, I can't see this rising to Special Snowflake levels.

Virg

I have a problem with it. The road is for driving, not for parking and chatting. It's a minor issue if no one was actually inconvenienced, but I still think it's wrong. Especially considering they left a parking spot in order to sit in the road and chat.

I live in a small town. Two drivers parked in each of their lanes with the windows rolled down chatting to each other as other people try to maneuver around them is a common sight here. 

[2littlemonkeys]

We saw two in short order last Friday.

#1: Your lane is MY lane!  We were driving down a side street when a woman pulled out of a parking ramp. Instead of stopping to see if anyone was coming, she pulled out in front of us and to add insult to injury, she pulled right into our lane (so she was coming straight at us).  We swerved to avoid her but I guess we were at fault because she let out a long beep.  Silly us for thinking we could just drive in our lane like that.

#2: 'Cause that will make everything better.

There was a horrific crash on Lake Shore Drive and it was completely shut down at a certain point.*  So we're limping along and all of a sudden, this driver just starts blowing his horn.  Long and loud.  I really don't know what he was expecting to accomplish there.  I suppose he was just letting off steam but no one was going anywhere anytime soon and it was very annoying.  He did that for a good 15-20 minutes.

*We had all been sick and spent the morning trying to figure out who was well enough to resume life and who had to stay home another day and missed the traffic report.  We didn't realize what was going on until after we were on the Drive and bailed as soon as we could.

[bopper]

And I lost it and said "Hon,  if you are going to be a librarian, you have to start making decisions and taking responsibility for your work."

His response "Well, I WILL be a librarian if you guys will just HELP ME DO MY HOMEWORK."
I'm afraid I walked away at that point and he avoided me all evening.

"Hon, I already went to school to be a librarian. I don't want to do it again.  If you don't want to read the book, then why are you taking the class? 'Cause if you don't like books or reading, then this is not the profession for you."

"If you don't learn this yourself, how are you going to help patrons when they come asking you the same questions?"

[NyaChan]

Okay, I didn't know if this was Snowflake Material or Impossible Request Material.  I chose snowflake because the patron's behavior just got more and more entitled as the week went  on.  (And also, he indirectly was the cause of me getting chewed out--and getting everyone else chewed out--for gossip.)

Background:  Because of the skyhigh incidence of theft of certain magazines, newspapers and journals, we have to keep them behind the desk and put dummy copies on the shelves.  The patrons have to ask for these and leave ID (usually their library cards) until they have finished with the item and returned it to us.  Until we instituted this system, even the local paper (which we spend about $200 monthly for a ten paper subscription) was gone before noon the same day we set them out in the reading area.

Now, MOST people have library cards that they leave with us.  But then there are those special snowflakes who I can only surmise, get library cards, stuff them in their wallets and purses, then go home and remove the library card and either cut it up for an art project or say "This is much too valuable an item to carry around in my wallet/purse.  I shall leave it at home whenever I go to the library."  These are the people who have to produce a picture ID so we can give them the number of the library card they don't think they need to check books out or get on the computer. 

So at the beginning of this week, two different men and a copy of the same issue of the same magazine.  They both gave their driver's licenses to one of my young coworkers.  You can see where this is going.  Not to excuse the guys, but Monday (and the rest of the week for that matter) saw the heaviest concentration of people with Actual Information Requests ever...in addition to the usual overload of people who want the computers to cook dinner for them and don't understand why this can't happen.  So, very busy.  Mr. Jones returned HIS copy of the magazine and received his driver's license.  When Mr. Smith returned with HIS copy, you guessed it...we learned that my young coworker had inadvertantly given Mr. Smith's ID to Mr. Jones. 

Mr. Smith promptly had a meltdown about how stupid we are and how irresponsible and how we didn't give a darn about him or his troubles and on and on...this, despite the fact that one coworker was paging Mr. Jones, coworker two was apologizing profusely for the error and I was on the phone calling everyone we could think of (everyone in the phone book with the last name Jones, the DMV, 4ll and even the condo complex where Mr. Jones lived, trying t track him down.)

Inspite of this, we had to get one of the higher ups to talk to him where he reiterated how no one was owning up to doing this (again, despite the fact that coworker was saying over and over, Mr. Smith, I am so sorry.  It was totally my fault) and that none of us were trying to help him.  (Inspite of the fact that we were cold calling total strangers and asking if they were related to Aloyuisius Jones.)  He wanted our heads on platters.  He wanted us fired!  We targeted him personally.

The supervisor, being the person she is, symathized with him completely, chastized us for even taking ID cards ("This poor man has lost a $75 license because you are all afraid of losing a two dollar magazine!") and told him we would pay to replace his license if we couldn't get Mr. Jones.

Tuesday, Mr. Smith called and promptly sailed into another tirade about how irresponsible we are, how inept, how mean and uncaring and so on....a coworker sent around an email advising us all of what Mr. Smith had said.  At that point I was annoyed that my team's mistake was being recited as us being evil and inept and lazy.  So I sent out an email that stated as much and added "I really do not know what more he can expect.  We have done X, Y, AND Z, we have all apologized for doing this, even those of us who didn't, we have offered the following solutions, we are going to pay for his license and short of getting Mr. Jones' picture blown up and stapled to every telephone pole, I don't know more he expects.  We are already groveling, does he want us all to get fired as well?  I understand he is upset, I would be, too, but accusing people of targeting him or deliberately losing the card is unfair and the implication that we don't care and won't take responsibility is patently untrue."

Five minutes later the Sympathizing Supervisor lit into me for "unprofessionally gossiping" about Mr. Smith and I should be a lot more careful to keep my negativity to myself.

She then called Mr. Smith invited him in and gave him the money to buy a new license. 

Yesterday Mr. Jones was in.  When my young coworker saw him, he wept with joy, related the story and Mr. Jones went wide eyed.  He's an elderly, frail and really very sweet guy.  He glanced at the license and said "I had no idea!  Guess it's a good thing I didn't get into an accident!"

He got his license back and I called Mr. Smith. 

Mr Smith was overjoyed, but hesitated when I said "Now, I know you already got your new license, but I thought you would want this one back right away so you could do with it as you see fit."  "Well, I haven't had the chance to go and get my new card," he finally said "but I don't think I should have to give the money back.  I lost time from work, pain and suffering..."  "Oh," I told him "no, we want you to keep the money.  We just wanted you to know that Mr. Jones was back and that he didn't even realize he had your card and he's returned it and we have it for you."  "Oh, okay!  Gee thanks.  You people really went the extra mile for me!"

Sure we did.  We put up with being called irresponsible (bad names), being accused of purposely stealing your ID, being threatened with being fired and generally being railed at by a supervisor.  YOU got your card back, plus almost one hundred dollars that you can now spend on whatever you like.

P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

I'm not sure if I agree that Mr. Smith was in the wrong. He certainly had an inappropriately strong and angry reaction, but if I was in the same situation I would be quietly panicking and not sleeping at all. Losing your ID, because someone didn't bother to check the picture is a major mistake. By your descriptions of the two men, it certainly seems that they didn't look alike at all.

This mistake could lead to robbery or identity theft, both of which can leave you with years of problems. He shouldn't have been abusive in his language to anyone, but it is a problem which in it's scale would lead me to forgive a uncontrolled reaction.

I had a similar reaction - this was a big deal! The library took charge of what many people consider an indispensable legal document and then gave it away to a stranger without even the excuse that the stranger somehow tricked the person at the counter.  I would have been livid, albeit without the salty language.

[Kariachi]

Okay, I didn't know if this was Snowflake Material or Impossible Request Material.  I chose snowflake because the patron's behavior just got more and more entitled as the week went  on.  (And also, he indirectly was the cause of me getting chewed out--and getting everyone else chewed out--for gossip.)

Background:  Because of the skyhigh incidence of theft of certain magazines, newspapers and journals, we have to keep them behind the desk and put dummy copies on the shelves.  The patrons have to ask for these and leave ID (usually their library cards) until they have finished with the item and returned it to us.  Until we instituted this system, even the local paper (which we spend about $200 monthly for a ten paper subscription) was gone before noon the same day we set them out in the reading area.

Now, MOST people have library cards that they leave with us.  But then there are those special snowflakes who I can only surmise, get library cards, stuff them in their wallets and purses, then go home and remove the library card and either cut it up for an art project or say "This is much too valuable an item to carry around in my wallet/purse.  I shall leave it at home whenever I go to the library."  These are the people who have to produce a picture ID so we can give them the number of the library card they don't think they need to check books out or get on the computer. 

So at the beginning of this week, two different men and a copy of the same issue of the same magazine.  They both gave their driver's licenses to one of my young coworkers.  You can see where this is going.  Not to excuse the guys, but Monday (and the rest of the week for that matter) saw the heaviest concentration of people with Actual Information Requests ever...in addition to the usual overload of people who want the computers to cook dinner for them and don't understand why this can't happen.  So, very busy.  Mr. Jones returned HIS copy of the magazine and received his driver's license.  When Mr. Smith returned with HIS copy, you guessed it...we learned that my young coworker had inadvertantly given Mr. Smith's ID to Mr. Jones. 

Mr. Smith promptly had a meltdown about how stupid we are and how irresponsible and how we didn't give a darn about him or his troubles and on and on...this, despite the fact that one coworker was paging Mr. Jones, coworker two was apologizing profusely for the error and I was on the phone calling everyone we could think of (everyone in the phone book with the last name Jones, the DMV, 4ll and even the condo complex where Mr. Jones lived, trying t track him down.)

Inspite of this, we had to get one of the higher ups to talk to him where he reiterated how no one was owning up to doing this (again, despite the fact that coworker was saying over and over, Mr. Smith, I am so sorry.  It was totally my fault) and that none of us were trying to help him.  (Inspite of the fact that we were cold calling total strangers and asking if they were related to Aloyuisius Jones.)  He wanted our heads on platters.  He wanted us fired!  We targeted him personally.

The supervisor, being the person she is, symathized with him completely, chastized us for even taking ID cards ("This poor man has lost a $75 license because you are all afraid of losing a two dollar magazine!") and told him we would pay to replace his license if we couldn't get Mr. Jones.

Tuesday, Mr. Smith called and promptly sailed into another tirade about how irresponsible we are, how inept, how mean and uncaring and so on....a coworker sent around an email advising us all of what Mr. Smith had said.  At that point I was annoyed that my team's mistake was being recited as us being evil and inept and lazy.  So I sent out an email that stated as much and added "I really do not know what more he can expect.  We have done X, Y, AND Z, we have all apologized for doing this, even those of us who didn't, we have offered the following solutions, we are going to pay for his license and short of getting Mr. Jones' picture blown up and stapled to every telephone pole, I don't know more he expects.  We are already groveling, does he want us all to get fired as well?  I understand he is upset, I would be, too, but accusing people of targeting him or deliberately losing the card is unfair and the implication that we don't care and won't take responsibility is patently untrue."

Five minutes later the Sympathizing Supervisor lit into me for "unprofessionally gossiping" about Mr. Smith and I should be a lot more careful to keep my negativity to myself.

She then called Mr. Smith invited him in and gave him the money to buy a new license. 

Yesterday Mr. Jones was in.  When my young coworker saw him, he wept with joy, related the story and Mr. Jones went wide eyed.  He's an elderly, frail and really very sweet guy.  He glanced at the license and said "I had no idea!  Guess it's a good thing I didn't get into an accident!"

He got his license back and I called Mr. Smith. 

Mr Smith was overjoyed, but hesitated when I said "Now, I know you already got your new license, but I thought you would want this one back right away so you could do with it as you see fit."  "Well, I haven't had the chance to go and get my new card," he finally said "but I don't think I should have to give the money back.  I lost time from work, pain and suffering..."  "Oh," I told him "no, we want you to keep the money.  We just wanted you to know that Mr. Jones was back and that he didn't even realize he had your card and he's returned it and we have it for you."  "Oh, okay!  Gee thanks.  You people really went the extra mile for me!"

Sure we did.  We put up with being called irresponsible (bad names), being accused of purposely stealing your ID, being threatened with being fired and generally being railed at by a supervisor.  YOU got your card back, plus almost one hundred dollars that you can now spend on whatever you like.

P.S.  I want to know what job it is you have sir, where you get to spend almost all day and every day at the library during the hours we see you there.  We know you didn't lose any time from work because you are here every day and most days, it's all day long.

I'm not sure if I agree that Mr. Smith was in the wrong. He certainly had an inappropriately strong and angry reaction, but if I was in the same situation I would be quietly panicking and not sleeping at all. Losing your ID, because someone didn't bother to check the picture is a major mistake. By your descriptions of the two men, it certainly seems that they didn't look alike at all.

This mistake could lead to robbery or identity theft, both of which can leave you with years of problems. He shouldn't have been abusive in his language to anyone, but it is a problem which in it's scale would lead me to forgive a uncontrolled reaction.

I had a similar reaction - this was a big deal! The library took charge of what many people consider an indispensable legal document and then gave it away to a stranger without even the excuse that the stranger somehow tricked the person at the counter.  I would have been livid, albeit without the salty language.

There's being livid, then there's trying to get everybody in the building fired. If he'd been focusing his vitriol on the offending party it would have still been horrible behavior but understandable, he instead decided that the whole library had to go down.

My sister gets caught in crossfire I'm not gonna demand that the town disband the entire police force. There's a limit to this stuff.

[Mental Magpie]

There's also all of the lying he did before he turned around and sang a different story.

[bloo]

Just want to POD Kariachi and Mental Magpie as they succinctly stated what I was thinking.

[MissRose]

Encountered one during my recent holidays in the NYC area:

*The guy on a bus that tried to argue with the bus driver on where he should be dropped off when she could not do so in a safe area.   She did get to an area where she could drop him off without him getting hit by several cars.  Also, I heard him muttering under his breath on the phone before he was able to get off the bus to someone about that female dog bus driver, really classy... NOT!

Then I have to say my friend's cat is an SS (in a way lol) :

I was staying with a friend and her husband just outside of NYC.  They have 2 cats.  1 cat was shy, the other cat was more social.  My friend had to go to work early the day I departed and the social cat kept going to into the room where her husband was trying to do his work as he works  from home, and he could not make the cat come in the room where I was no matter what he tried... Cats !!!!

[Katana_Geldar]

Cats are like that, they like to do things on their an terms. We have two. The girl is rather social, loves meeting visitors but her brother's not and usually sleeps on the couch and doesn't have anything to do with anyone.

[missmolly]

I was waiting in line at a train station last week to fix a mistake for a booking. It was a long line in front of multiple service desks, but only three windows were open and most customers had a complicated issue. So I had been waiting in line for a good 45 minutes at that point. A fourth window opened up suddenly, so the young couple at the front of the queue line started to move towards it. Suddenly an elderly gentleman appeared out of nowhere and made a beeline for the open window. The couple got his attention and explained to him that there was a long queue and he would have to wait like everyone else. He ignored them and tried to talk with the cashier. Fortunately the cashier was having none of it, and told him to go to the back of the line. He argued with the cashier for a good two minutes and then left in a huff.

About three minutes later he was back, and went to stand behind another customer at the window so that he would be served the moment they were finished. This time members of the queue line protested loudly. Once again, he started to argue that he was in a hurry and didn't have time to wait, but in the face of about forty irritated people, he left, for good this time.