Years ago, a newspaper printed...
Illustration
Years ago, a newspaper printed an article about professional complainers you could hire
to do your complaining for you. Services ranged from an angry harangue on the phone to
composing and sending an outraged letter to the Cadillac of all complaints. For a fee they
would organize a protest march, complete with marchers, signs, and banners. Their motto
was "We whine, you win."
Interesting idea, but do we really need professional complainers? Aren't most of us pretty good at complaining already? We can gripe about a lot of things: a coworker on the job, our nosy neighbor, picking up after our children, getting stuck with the dinner dishes, taking out the trash, slow service at a restaurant, too much traffic, or bad drivers. We don't require a professional complainer. Besides, if we did hire professional complainers and were dissatisfied with their services, who would we complain to then?
Job complained, too. But at least (after all he'd been through) he had some valid gripes. How much of our complaining is just plain whining?
Interesting idea, but do we really need professional complainers? Aren't most of us pretty good at complaining already? We can gripe about a lot of things: a coworker on the job, our nosy neighbor, picking up after our children, getting stuck with the dinner dishes, taking out the trash, slow service at a restaurant, too much traffic, or bad drivers. We don't require a professional complainer. Besides, if we did hire professional complainers and were dissatisfied with their services, who would we complain to then?
Job complained, too. But at least (after all he'd been through) he had some valid gripes. How much of our complaining is just plain whining?
