So many angry people around

[RainCloud]

Has anyone else noticed this? I've seen arguments over parking, people arguing in shops, mumsnet threads turning into fights (more so than usual 😂). I generally keep myself to myself when I'm out and about and ignore most people but I've had people tutting and foot stamping behind me in queues. There just seem to be so many people getting angry at the moment.

Is is the heat? Finances / cost of living? Post covid lock down trauma?

Well-built, thick-walled buildings for the most part…in the city centres anyway…with high ceilings and lots of space. Not the tiny, flimsy-walled new-builds that people are being crammed into now.

I've only noticed it on here. Thankfully everyone I come into contact with in real life is lovely. Give or take a few

Move to the country.
Its a million times better - everyone knows each other so very very rarely rude.
it’s not over crowded or stressful. It’s only in the larger towns and cities it is notably more stressful doing anything.
It should be noted we felt similar tensions in other cities too - Barcelona and Paris being especially notable.

Whilst I don't notice the anger in shops etc being any more, on the road there seem more men with sexual inadequacies being behind the wheel.

Whenever I have a rant to the customer services of <insert organisation here> I always say please don't take this personally know you're just doing a job under difficult circumstances and if I get a bit intemperate it's BECAUSE I'VE SPENT A FUCKING HOUR ON HOLD ALREADY and it's not your fault but the profit taking corporate bastards that are hollowing out our society and getting richer than ever and that Liz Truss can sling her fucking hook because of THIS.IS.A.DISGRACE. STOP THE BLOODY CHEESE IMPORTS (no please don't).

Phew feels better already

This is a classic clip from 50 years ago no less - probably most of you will have seen it if not it's a treat.

See I don't mind that
I did object to the one telling me to "tell your manager you need more staff" and ranting he had waited 2hrs to get through
At no point in the 5 years I've been there have we ever had a 2hr queue my manager would be crying and his actual wait time? 7 minutes
So I dunno what he was doing for 2hrs. Our queue even tells you how many people are waiting and the average wait time

Driving massive cars to over compensate 😂

I feel myself getting more and more angry these days. I think it’s because the world is increasingly dehumanised. Even ordering a coffee in a chain shop you’re just part of a process, there’s no personal interaction. So then it’s easy to get really annoyed when the queue moves too slowly, or your drink gets made wrong. You need a 2 way connection with other people where you feel seen as a person to treat them as fully human.

That about sums it up.

I nearly mentioned this too. Noise is relentless with constant building work and people screeching.

What a great thread.

I believe crumbling families and no family support leaves people more ready to get angry/ crack up than before. There's no stable foundation.

As well as all the above.

I agree, although today it was me being annoyed.

Went into Pets at Home to buy Advantage flea treatment for cat. I think it would have been easier to buy cocaine tbh. I've been buying it there for a while so I'm on the system, my cat is on the system and I've been buying for "large cat" the whole time but that didn't seem to stop the woman being ridiculous. There's doing your job then there's just being plain jobsworth.

"How much does the cat weigh?"

"He's over 4 kilos (dose is for cats over 4 kilos) and it's the one he usually has."

"How much though?"

"I don't know exactly, but it's over kilos, he's a large cat "

"Is he registered at a vet?"

"Yes, he's 7."

"With our vet here?"

"No"

"Would you like to call his vet to see how much he weighs?"

"No, because he's over 4 kilos and he hasn't gotten smaller."

"He could have gotten smaller since he last saw the vet?"

"No, he's not smaller, if anything he's bigger."

Cats bum face. Then proceeds to tell me the life cycle of fleas in the home/carpet.

Me: "I've had cats for over 30 years. I'm aware of fleas."

Sells me the flea treatment.

Next time I'll just go to the vet for it! I know it's a licenced product and they need to ask certain things, but I'm not there trying to purchase a dose for a large cat to give to a kitten and its on the system of there's that is all I've ever bought for said cat.

Interesting thread. Wasn't the hot weather one of the things blamed for the 2011 riots?

@GarlicBread4Life

@DavesSpareDeckChair

I think it was. I think it was hotter than usual when the Arab Spring happened too.

Oh god, I used to work somewhere where we always had to say "I'm sorry you feel that way," (even when it was obvious the company had fucked up and should have been saying something else such as "sorry for the inconvenience.") I hated saying it, it felt so manipulative! It felt like the company was almost blaming the customers themselves for daring to be annoyed by fuckups, rather than taking any responsibility for what had happened or putting it right.

Of course with scripts, monitoring, targets, KPIs, performance management, 121s, etc etc we had to say things like "I'm sorry you feel that way" if we wanted to keep our jobs or get promotions. It seemed like it was all about following the company's procedures and building a paper trail to show you'd followed them rather than about genuinely doing your job well. There was a lot of "What gets measured gets done and what doesn't get measured doesn't get done."
This style of management must be contributing to the feelings of anger and insecurity that people are talking about, for both staff and customer. IMHO job insecurity is a big issue, there is no longer a "job for life" for many people. There is also a kind of insecurity for customers, I don't know the word/phrase for it, but it's like there is no longer any guarantee that we will get what we rang up / came in for.

Now I feel the opposite. I'm a lot calmer when I can do things without human contact, i.e. fill the car with petrol, order my McDonalds by the app or screen, do a click & collect for shopping, use a cash machine to withdraw cash or deposit a cheque.

It's the human interaction that raises my blood pressure. Standing in a queue whilst Doris tells the shop assistant her life story, surly counter staff who don't even acknowledge your presence let alone say please or sorry - many may as well be robots!, constantly having to repeat my order because the counter assistant isn't listening, then they get the order wrong because they weren't concentrating, etc.

Give me automation any day!

The UK is like one giant melting pot.
People are getting angry and frustrated for lots of reasons.
Overcrowding. We now have more people than ever using the same size infrastructures and facilities.
One example is the highways. Consider that forty years ago, most households only had one car, some didn't have a car at all.
Now most households have a minimum of two cars, but the roads haven't expanded to match the demand, so more vehicles are jostling for the same space, leading to frustration and anger as traffic builds up.
More dwellings being built, but local infrastructures and facilities haven't expanded to cater for the numbers needing to use them.
People not having job security. A lot of contacts now are zero hour and more companies are using agency staff rather than employing their own, or sourcing contracts to an external company.
The cost of living is ever increasing, but wages aren't, which is putting people under a lot of stress and worry.
More mothers are working now more than they ever have, leading to childcare expense and stress.
The judicial system is farcical in most cases. People aren't getting a punishment fitting of the crime, which angers people.
Kids are taunting authority, such as adults and the police because they know there will be no repercussions.
Lack of discipline with children, which leads to my point above.
People being sick of the woke nonsense which tells them how to think, feel and speak, but if they do speak out then someone is offended, sometimes even getting that person arrested.
Covid. Since the first lockdown, people haven't been able to access their healthcare services, which has led to people becoming seriously ill or dying.
They haven't been able to access services without a frustrating delay, if they can access them at all.
People are understandably angry about this.
Put all this and more into that melting pot and the whole thing will eventually boil over, which it seems to be already.

Very good summary.

Is it just the U.K. though?

OP
I don't particularly like to name places, but I have three relatives in cities in other countries feeling the same.

on the flip side, I have a cousin living in a quiet part of Tennessee and he thinks things are fine but ...he said everyone there is also annoyed by the forced essential use tech for everything.

He also misses the mom & pop stores but thinks a lot of young folks don't remember them. He's in his 50s with kids in their 20s.

Well it hasn't got any better today. Glad I'm working from home tomorrow 😀

People are annoyed and feel voiceless generally,

Overcrowding is a real thing- people can’t have sensible conversations about this though.

Twitter and social media are bringing out the worst in many and it’s a competition to be the most ‘woke’ and publicly caring at the expense of pulling down others. A real rise in antisocial behaviour with no negative consequences for perpetrators isn’t helping. Travelers constantly coming into the area (an issue here), them being aggressive to anyone daring to walk nearby/ verbally threatening to toddlers , using well kept parks as public toilets and chopping down swings etc constantly for scrap annoy people- especially when would get a council parking ticket for being one minute over in a parking bay etc. Then being called ‘racist’ etc for stating their behaviour might just be a bit unreasonable…

I do the same. :)

The heat, not sleeping well and then money worries.
There is a bleak feeling in the air. It's quite sad and concerning.

Good for you. Genuinely! I hope you will always go this - it’s needed and appreciated🙂