To think it's obnoxious to take as long as you want when there are lots of other people waiting

[CruCru]

On Friday I was waiting for a ferry (I had missed the one I was booked on) along with a bunch of other people. They were very busy so only letting two or three "overflow" cars on each ferry.

There was a ferry employee answering questions and a crowd around him (mainly wanting to know whether there was any chance of getting their cars on that evening or if they should park and get on as foot passengers). One woman was engaging the poor man at length, asking a bunch of irrelevant questions and when he looked confused, said "Oh I just want to know more about your job". It came across as punishing him through passive aggressiveness.

She got quite narky when another woman said "there are a few of us who need to ask questions" and went ahead and asked her question. In the end I got onto a ferry four hours after the one I was booked for (and I was lucky).

AIBU to think that there is an etiquette where taking loads of time when others are also waiting is rude?

Pet hates are:

People getting on the bus and asking the busdriver a load of questions about where the bus is going, and does it go near here and there, and then deciding to get off and wait for a more direct bus.

People who stand at the ATM machine leisurely putting in and out several cards and completing loads of transactions while a queue builds up behind them.

However, I also hate pushy shovey people who blast their car horns a nano second after the light has gone green; or who stand right up behind people at the self service check outs huffing and puffing if one of their items isn't scanning, or they need to call the assistant for something.

Some people need to learn how to get a move on; and some people need to learn to have some manners and a bit of patience.

And then there's perfect people like me

I think people sometimes live completely in their own worlds with no awareness of others around them.
I was at Starbucks the other day waiting at the register to make my order (I was the only customer waiting). As the Starbucks employee got ready to take my order, a girl maybe early 20s rushed in looking slightly breathless and went straight up to the register, actually standing right slap-bang next to me and started ordering a drink. The Starbucks employee and I just stared at each other with raised eyebrows and the Starbuck's employee politely explained that she was helping me but she would take her order shortly. The girl then glared at me and stood silently (still right up next to me) while I finished my order.
From the girl's facial expressions and demeanor I realized pretty quickly that she was extremely socially awkward and seemed unaware that she had to wait her turn or that she was invading my personal space.

I am part of a hobby group that meets once a month in the local pub. Half of us have children, and most of us have childcare issues due to other halves working away, or babies who can only be left for so long. So this is a rare night out and time is precious.

I went to the bar the other week and there was a guy ordering a pint. He insisted on having little samplers of all the beers. He tried them, hummed, tried them again, in a different order, hmmed some more, asked some searching questions about the bartender's knowledge of the breweries in question, tried them again, asked if it would be possible to have a particular beer in a nice glass to keep, as he was on holiday and wanted a souvenir of his trip to nice local pub, tried them again, asked some more questions, decided on one, was surprised that he needed to produce money, asked the price, searched pockets, found wallet, got distracted by some more pressing questions, counted out his change, checked the price again, found he didn't have enough change, searched other pocket, found a note, asked the price again, asked some more questions about the price of beer in general, forgot the price, counted his money again, decided which note to pay with, and then decided to try the beer again to see if he really wanted that one.

By this time I had my head on the bar.

The bartender eventually said 'I think I'm going to need to serve some of these other people.' The man was then terribly surprised, and asked some more questions about whether the pub was always this busy. The bartender eventually managed to extract himself and serve me.

None of the above is remotely exaggerated. I may even have missed out some tastings/searchings of pockets.

I had that this morning. self-checkout.

woman infront of me didn't have much and was scanning them methodically, then we turned up, (no other available checkouts) and she gave me a filthy look (I don't even know her!) and then went v e r y s l o w l y scanning her items.

why? I mean, Why?

angelos - I was once stuck behind someone in a single-counter post office, who took over ten minutes deciding which Olympic stamp her friend in the US would like on her card. She kept asking the teller whether she knew what medals the different teams had won, and rejecting stamps accordingly.

I knew someone on one of the stamps that was under consideration, and I had great difficulty not tapping her on the shoulder and telling her some unpleasant and entirely untrue things about the person in question, just to narrow the decision down

and what about petrol stations? when you're behid someone ,waiting for the pump and they get back in their car, slowly, faff about with their stereo, brush their hair or clean their glasses, adjust the mirror, looking gleefully at you behind at the same time, taking an hour to put on their seatbelt, starting the engine, then slowly pulling out... grrrrrrrrrrrr.

From memory I think the ferry woman was asking "out of interest" what the queuing system is when it isn't a bank holiday and how the man prioritised waiting cars and motorcycles. It was all rather theoretical and not particularly relevant to whether we should leave our cars on the mainland and come back to collect them tomorrow.