Why is everyone away with the fairies?

[xAwaywiththefairiesx]

Is it just me or have listening skills and attention spans declined rapidly in the last 10 years or so?

Nobody bloody listens or retains information any more.

Yesterday, I was at work. Patient transport turns up with a patient to transfer to us. I said, "Oh hi, have you got Mr Smith?" (All names have been changed) and the man says "yeah".
OK, great. I ring for the staff in the department that need to collect Mr Smith while patient transport guy goes to collect Mr Smith from the ambulance. I start typing up the paperwork to admit Mr Smith.
Our staff come down, with the necessary equipment to transport Mr Smith, and just then, who should come through the doors but a perfectly mobile Mrs Jones??!!
I said "that's not Mr Smith!!" and he said "nah" I asked him why he said it was and he just shrugged.
So I have to send the staff back again, with their equipment, get hold of the staff that need to collect Mrs Jones, and wait for them to come down.
All the while patient transport is stood there tapping his foot and looking at his watch like he has no idea it was him that caused the delay.

This is just one irritating incident. I find noone takes in information, noone listens, I have to send people times, dates etc 100 squilion times before it goes in. The parents WhatsApp group is full of questions the school has emailed to everyone already and all day long at work people reply to my emails asking stuff that is in the email they are replying to.
My husband has asked me three times today what shifts I am working next week.
The delivery people will completely ignore notes telling them where to leave parcels.
People in shops just stare blankly at you when you ask them very simple questions, or ask you to repeat yourself because they weren't listening.

I bet even on this thread, mumsnetters will comment having not read it properly.

Is everyone just away with the fucking fairies?!

You’re very disparaging about everyone else it seems. Did you never mishear someone or get a detail wrong from time to time?

You're probably a lot more intelligent and observant than all other people you mentioned. Don't be a dick about it and be a bit more patient with people...

Frankly, that just sounds like the NHS for the last god knows how long - the left hand simply not talking to the right hand.

It seems to be literally everyone I interact with though!!

I'm not trying to be nasty, but it's starting to genuinely concern me!!

Everyone I know is stressed tae fuck which has an astonishing affect on your ability to focus.

Yes OP.

If every single person you meet is the same, maybe it's not them that are the problem?

Well, I do wonder this! Maybe it's the way I say things?!

But if you haven't heard me or you can't understand me or you can't read what I write then surely you can just say that? Wouldn't that be more productive than me constantly having to repeat myself?

Most delivery people don't have time to read the notes, if they can even see them on the system.

Lots of the other stuff can be explained by information overload. I get so many emails every day just on my personal email that I only read some of them and often that's only skim reading.

In your patient transport example, I think the problem was that you assumed who it was. In future just ask who they have then you won't have that problem again of them nodding without listening.

Same with taxis - you should ask who they're collecting rather than giving them the name. Although that's more for safety reasons to ensure you're actually getting into the car you booked.

Unfortunately people are forced into jobs that they don’t want to do/shouldn’t be doing because their benefits will/have stopped

The amount of under 35s I work with who are totally “not living the dream” because they threw away their education, because they all thought they were going to be the next David Beckham or Katie Price.

I know what you mean, more and more people just seem to have stopped caring about being dependable or good at their job. I’ve thought it for a while to be honest. Seemed to get worse after lockdown. So frustrating when you’re as solid as a rock and get things right / try your best. The ones saying you think you’re perfect will be the ones that can’t be arsed and ruining peoples days!

I asked because that's who I was expecting, I had had the phonecall to say he was on the way, so it lined up.
IRL I used a full name.
You know if you loaded up a man or a woman, surely? You can hear the difference between George Smith and Elizabeth Jones, surely? So why just nod along?
But it is good advice, in future I will ask for a name or a question that requires an actual answer and it just yes or no.

Maybe start saying "Which patient do you have?" instead - that way, they have to answer and give you a name - they can't just "uh huh" you.

With your DH, write your shifts down on a calendar and refer him back to it every time he asks.

With retail, make sure you have their attention and they speak to you before asking them a question?

But if you're only skim reading and then emailing the sender to ask them something they already told you because you didn't read it... Aren't you basically just getting that person to do your job for you? Instead of reading and processing the information yourself?
Isn't that quite unfair on that person who probably has a million jobs of their own?
And wouldn't it be quicker to read it yourself rather than wait for a reply? Therefore probably making your own job easier?
I just don't get why people would do that, sorry.

I think these days we are all dealing with far, far more information than the average brain can deal with. People think they can multi-task and take it all in; very few actually can.

My personal bugbear for this sort of thing is the school comms situation, where in the middle of a discussion about non-uniform day someone comes along to ask whether it's non-uniform day tomorrow. On the one hand it's crackers, but then they have probably reasonably tuned out the 25 messages about whether anyone else is wearing football kit / what if the class has PE / do they need to bring a pound. It's endemic.

Thank you, that's a good idea and deff what I will do from now on, someone else suggested it too.

DH has full access to an app which my work uploads all my shifts onto. He just CBA to bloody look at it. So he just asks me. Then asks me again. Then again. After the third time I told him I'm not answering him again and he can just bloody well piss off and look it up 😂

Retail.. I just... I don't know. I really don't want to be mean. But they often seem to drift off mid conversation or their eyes glaze over when you start speaking. Maybe they're all hungover. I know I was half of the time when I worked in Tesco age 17...

The school WhatsApp questions are reasonably understandable at our school which likes to communicate a million different ways: via an app, a newsletter, Google classroom and sometimes randomly to specific parents on the gate, often contradicting previous parent-wide communication. You have to check all the sources to work out what is happening as each has different information.

I agree with you OP. Reading, comprehension and attention to detail are definitely on the decline. I put it down to the fact that people are consumed by a torrent of bite sized social media , which results in not being able to retain and communicate detail.

I definitely see it - most days and it is a worry.

She asked if they were transporting a specific patient and they confirmed they were carrying that specific patient

They were not carrying that specific patient, in spite of their assurances

If they had misheard, they could have asked for clarification. They did not

They just could not be arsed about the trouble they were putting someone else to, the fact they were delaying treatment for the patient they were carrying or the inconvenience they were putting the staff who were waiting for the patient they said they were carrying

I'm intrigued as to why you weren't expecting a Mrs Jones arriving around the same time. How did Mr Smith get there in the end and was it much later than you expected?

It’s the mental overload that comes with technology. When I was at school my parents got contacted maybe twice a year with a printed out piece of paper (end of year parents evening, and the nativity play), but now I literally get about 3 emails a week from the school (and I have kids at different 2 schools, so double that) with stuff I’m supposed to remember (book day, odd sock day, blah blah day). I am overwhelmed with things I need to remember 🤯

Im surprised you don’t have SOP that say you have to ask who they have not ask if the have x. When I give blood im asked my DOB at least three times in very quick succession but I understand it’s a safety check. They can’t assume im me just cause I was me ten seconds earlier.

people say “yeh” all the time to questions they dont hear. Never believe them.

My brain is increasingly like this.