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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Slow clueless people holding up queues

497 replies

AuntyMargeAuntyFlora · 07/11/2023 10:38

What is it with these people?

My latest experience was at a walk-in centre. Only two women ahead of me in the queue to book in. Goodness knows what they were doing, most of it seemed to be standing there looking at each other before saying a few quiet words to the receptionist who had to keep explaining the same things to them (that they had missed their appointment and needed to go immediately to another hospital if they wanted to see x department). Then they'd stare at each other again. Occasionally one would half-heartedly search in a bag or look at their phone. Absolutely no sense of urgency at all, and apparently oblivious (despite glancing in our direction several times) to the massive queue gradually building up behind them. By the time the queue had almost reached the door, another member of staff was called to come and help book everyone else in, and these two women were still slowly doing nothing.

I don't mind if someone has genuinely got a difficult query/situation that takes ages to unpick, or if they are perhaps elderly/overwhelmed/etc and these things take longer. But its usually these people who are first to apologise for holding up the queue or even suggest others go ahead!

What I'm talking about is the entitled people who don't seem to register that other people exist, and who ponder and confer at a snail's pace, oblivious to any sense of urgency of the queue building up. I can imagine someone coming in with a serious injury, and these two women glancing over periodically as the person bleeds everywhere and slowly collapses, as they carry on with their inane time wasting non-query...

OP posts:
uncomfortablydumb53 · 07/11/2023 11:39

It annoys me when people get to the end of the checkout before looking through cards in their purses to pay, as if it's a surprise they have to pay, meanwhile I'm stood behind with 3 items
I'm disabled and can't always manage self scan

MrShady · 07/11/2023 11:41

Prelapsarianhag · 07/11/2023 11:32

Not everyone is as fast or clever as you.

Sure but people really are hard work generally

Imagine you wanted tyres for your car to book it in. What do you think you might need?
Every day at work I ask for the cars registration and which tyres (front/back)
99% of people don't have their car registration and then say "I KNEW you were going to ask that"
If they don't have it, I can use their postcode but I would say 50% of people don't have that either

BarbaraofSeville · 07/11/2023 11:43

ThinWomansBrain · 07/11/2023 11:36

Either that or call their partner to ask at length what they want to eat for supper

COVID when they only allowed one person at a time in the supermarket was the worst and it was full of men who'd obviously decided that doing the shopping was the lesser of two evils compared with looking after DC.

So you couldn't move for men waving their phones at the shelves so their wives could tell them what to buy Hmm

Onethingatatime23 · 07/11/2023 11:43

Prelapsarianhag · 07/11/2023 11:32

Not everyone is as fast or clever as you.

Exactly 😅

Well done, take a biscuit. 🍪

BrimfulOfMash · 07/11/2023 11:44

CurlewKate · 07/11/2023 11:36

I'm glad to see the people are becoming aware of the shocking ageism on Mumsnet. It makes it more interesting trying to spot it. "Mary Poppins handbag" is a good one!🤣

You are right about the ageism on MN.

To be fair though, I think the number of people who Just Don’t Think reduce tolerance and patience for those who need more time for reasons of health or other challenges.

And stopping dead when you get off an escalator is dangerous.

kitsuneghost · 07/11/2023 11:45

I had this at an airport recently
The check in opened the same time for a number of flights
We got directed to a fast track queue because of our earlier flight

The woman at the front had no clue was there going through her bag and phone. son going through her phone. totally dis-organised.
Eventually the head guy told her to move aside while she was checking her itinerary (???) so they could get the queue moving

She ended up behind me at security and heard her complaining about the security queue after them taking them soooo long to check her in.

You literally show your ticket, passport and pop your bags on they conveyer.
Hell knows what the difficulty was.

we ended up next to someone in the normal line at security.

BarbaraofSeville · 07/11/2023 11:45

ClaudiaWankleman · 07/11/2023 11:39

Well outside of the tube, there is no etiquette for standing and passing on escalators, and I think YAB a bit U. In fact, it's more efficient for the public as a whole to stand on both sides than it is to queue to stand only on the right.

No, you stand on the right, so people who want to carry on walking can do so.

It's not just 'The Tube' where people might want to get on with their day instead of standing there staring into space.

Chanelbasketballandchain · 07/11/2023 11:46

There needs to be a frequent flier queue, and a separate slow imbecile queue.

absolutely that!

Some people have just too much time on their hands, we get it, they are bored and like to faff. The rest of us have lives and things to do, be slow but at least get out of the flipping way!

so I can chose to waste my own time on MN😂

YouJustDoYou · 07/11/2023 11:48

We have a set of traffic lights near us on a junction that are usually fine, can get 5 cars or so through before they change. Roadworks just up the road and no crosshatching now means cars from the left just block up the entire length of road, trying to rush through, not allowing a single other car from the traffic light direction to get through (selfish fucking pricks). If you're quick, maybe now one car can get across, at a push two but the 2nd one has to go almost touching bonnet to driver side to the car blocking the road. SO when you have a really, really indesisive driver in the queue at the lights and the mother fucker JUST WON'T GO, you can be stuck sitting there for ages. The dithering is infuriating.

OnlyFannys · 07/11/2023 11:49

When I drop my child off at school we have to walk around the back of the nursery building to get out, the path is not very wide and there is a fence on the other side, without fail every bloody morning some parents decide to stop mid path at the window of nursery to try and catch their precious darlings eye to wave at them and pull faces etc. Drives me fucking mad, I have to get back to get to work and these people just don't seem to care that other people exist

ClaudiaWankleman · 07/11/2023 11:50

BarbaraofSeville · 07/11/2023 11:45

No, you stand on the right, so people who want to carry on walking can do so.

It's not just 'The Tube' where people might want to get on with their day instead of standing there staring into space.

As much as you might want it to be, that isn't the etiquette or social custom that we have in the UK, except for when you're using the tube. It's unreasonable to make up your own social rules and get annoyed when people don't follow them.

PurpleNebula84 · 07/11/2023 11:51

DrunkenKoala · 07/11/2023 10:52

The people who step off an escalator and then stand there. The people behind them have nowhere to go except into the back of them - which then gives the standers the hump as someone has ‘pushed’ them.

That's just like my daughter walking out of the house... Stops on the doorstep, yet I'm right behind her and trying to close the door 🤦🏻‍♀️
I've had the escalator thing happen too... What on earth possesses these people 🙄🙄

AuntyMargeAuntyFlora · 07/11/2023 11:52

x2boys · 07/11/2023 11:20

It would be exceptionally. Unlucky for them both to.be afflicted .

Yes, quite. Particularly as one looked to be in her early 20s and the other maybe 40s.

As I said, it was the utter lack of awareness that they were holding people up, despite being able to see the queue growing behind them. They didn't seem remotely confused or flustered, just slow. Actually it seems like entitlement because they WERE aware of us all waiting, but that didn't change their behaviour at all.

OP posts:
Itsnotchristmasyet · 07/11/2023 11:52

I think having a moan about someone talking too long to order at a cafe or being entitled and rude or something is one thing.

But I think moaning about someone taking too long at a walk-in centre is a bit below the belt.

Its highly likely they were poorly (hence being there) and you don’t know the circumstances.

The receptionist should have called another member of staff (which they did) or asked for the people to have a seat whilst she dealt with the others and then got back to them, if she felt it wasn’t urgent.

The fact that they were so quiet and confused makes me think there was a lot more going on.
Not all disabilities are visible.

katseyes7 · 07/11/2023 11:52

I was about to post, but this is almost verbatim what l was going to say.
It always astounds me when you're in a queue waiting to be served and the person in front has spent just as long as you in the queue so a good while then they get to the counter and need to find an email on their phone to access the service , they have to get their purse from the bottom of their bag and search looking for their store card / vouchers
When you've been waiting for how long , why didn't you sort this out before ?!!!*

AtomicPumpkin · 07/11/2023 11:53

Large lorries overtaking other large lorries and taking several minutes to do it. If you can't complete the manoeuvre in a reasonable time, e.g ten seconds, don't start it.

5128gap · 07/11/2023 11:53

fearfuloffluff · 07/11/2023 11:24

I prefer being around slow people than fast people tbh.

Recently came through an airport late at night with two small children we had to wake to get off the plane. Couldn't carry children as had lots of bags. So many bastard people pushing past us just to get to the passport queue 30 seconds sooner.

You never know what's going on with other people, the tedium of having to wait in these situations is a key test of being a civilised human.

Edited

Same. I'd rather have a slow person than one of these full of their own self importance, huffing and puffing like a fool as though the loss to them of a couple of a few minutes is the end of the world. Slower people, like heavy traffic, exist and may cost you time. Allow more time.

DahliaMacNamara · 07/11/2023 11:54

I don't think I've ever even noticed someone being 'surprised' that they had to pay at a checkout, so I'm probably one of those myself. Another terrible thing that I do is not pack as I go at a self-service checkout unless I only have a small number of items. This is because I have to repeatedly pick up my shopping bags as I pack to make sure I can lift the weight into the trolley, and the machine really doesn't like you doing that. I had someone sighing behind me yesterday as I did that. Sorry.
On the other hand, I'm a whizz at the cashpoint. I can read, process, hit the relevant buttons and be away in a flash. I'm baffled at watching others take ten times as long. I don't sigh at them, because I'm not a total twat, in spite of my supermarket slowness.

Youremylobster87 · 07/11/2023 11:54

TWICE in the last week I've been to a takeaway style place for food/coffee and the person being served phones someone to ask what they want. Why wouldn't you sort this out before you get there?! I'm with you OP, can't stand faffers.

PurpleNebula84 · 07/11/2023 11:55

Cash machines - always seem to be stuck behind someone who spends ages faffing... Still don't know what these people are doing that I'm not 🤷🏻‍♀️

KimberleyClark · 07/11/2023 11:56

cyclamenqueen · 07/11/2023 10:57

Justfly from Heathrow 5 or City where you no longer have to do any of this stuff

I flew from T5 a couple of weeks ago. There definitely was airport security!

Wexone · 07/11/2023 11:57

Airport security - come on now its been like that for over 10 years now, its clearly listed on flight websites when you book, travel agents tell, you , lots of talk about it in all aspects of media, when arrive at airport said over tannoy, screens up telling you millions of signs, security and staff screeching it how on EARTH are people still not ready ? Still faff about when get to top of que and even worse dont bring tray away from the end to gather your bits
Some security have a power trip through at airports, i got given out for taking a tray off the empty row beside the one i was queuing at at Bristol airport. The trays were slow coming back down at the queu and i took one so i could be ready to put my tray on the belt when got to top of que, to be organized and ready like, but no he screamed do not take trays from that area. God Forbid

People who step onto escalators and just stand there, if you don't want to keep moving get the bloody lift. Need to do what i saw in France recently speaker over the escalator sating off not moving keep left and let people pass

AtomicPumpkin · 07/11/2023 11:57

5128gap · 07/11/2023 11:53

Same. I'd rather have a slow person than one of these full of their own self importance, huffing and puffing like a fool as though the loss to them of a couple of a few minutes is the end of the world. Slower people, like heavy traffic, exist and may cost you time. Allow more time.

That is easily said if you have no deadlines or nowhere particular to be. It's a privilege to have that luxury.

SawX · 07/11/2023 12:00

MrsSkylerWhite · 07/11/2023 11:01

You don’t know the personal circumstances of these women. Perhaps I ought to start a thread about judgemental people?

Go on then. I bet it won't be as popular as this thread.

Wexone · 07/11/2023 12:00

Oh cash machines is another one, like why so bloody long especially with online banking available on your phone. I actually got on to my mother about this, she would faff about for ages at the machine then get paranoid with the que behind her, if you went taking so long there wouldn't be a que mother. Finally got her on online banking and now she thinks its the best thing since sliced bread And if she was the one in the que she would be fuming as the person would be taking so long

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