My Bug List

Dwayne Alan Thompson II
ENT 3003
University of Florida

My Bug List

I definitely have many things that bug me. Perhaps it's because I have been in business for some time now and realize that the things in my business or industry that annoy me can be changed by me whenever I want, yet hundreds of things in life cannot be changed by me. Below is my list of things that bug me and why they occur.

1. People chewing with their mouths open. This drives me absolutely nuts, because I can't do anything about it and the sound is disgusting. 
1. Why 1? People do this because they never had parents to teach them manners. 
2. Why 2? The offenders have zero care for others and are comfortable being obnoxious. 
2. The potholes in the roads in South Carolina, specifically the roads around Charleston. 
1. Why 1? The South Carolina Department of Transportation is completely ineffective at managing our roads. Despite the significant tax increase 2 years ago for Charleston County, the roads seem to get worse every day. They pay 6 guys to stand around and watch 1 throw dirt into the pothole and then pour a little asphalt on top of it. So in about 2 weeks, the pothole just returns. In my opinion, this is what causes the lack of repair.
2. Why 2? First, the roads are built on filled in marsh and low level grounds. Second, it rains a ton, which creates pockets of soft soil underneath and erodes the asphalt. 
3. The amount of weight that I gained in the last 4 years. I went from an athletic shaped, lean male at 175 to an overweight, out of shape 240 pound guy. Thankfully, I have lost about 20 of those pounds over the last 10 weeks and continue to lose weight. 
1. Why 1? Because I threw away my values and self care when I got married and elected to eat as many of the best tasting foods that I could while drinking great beer and avoiding the gym like the plague. 
2. Why 2? I had no self control, internal drive to work out, and failed to manage my meal portions because I enjoyed my temporary satisfactions from eating. 
4. Robocalls are the worse thing about having a cell phone. They bug me about 10 times a day. 
1. Why 1? The cell phone companies don't care who calls you, they just want a payment every month and thus have not created a method to eliminate robo callers.
2. Why 2? The FTC has not introduced severe enough repercussions for violating the Do Not Call registry for robo callers to care to follow it.
5. When people request pointless meetings or want to just chit chat.
1. Why 1? They have nothing to occupy their time so they attempt to find ways to waste other people's or fill their boredom with using someone else's creativity. 
2. Why 2? They are focused on friendships and relationships during the time when we are there to make money. Being a task oriented person I don't understand how people are so happy to sit around and talk and joke when you've got things to do and wealth to obtain. 
6. When people start a business and have no idea how they are different from their competitors.
1. Why 1? Someone said you should go start your own business, so they took their trade they know and decided to go into business themselves without proper planning. 
2. Why 2? They end up failing or living with a mediocre life that could have been better by just working for someone else. They don't take the time to thoroughly plan out why they are going into business, the value they will bring to the marketplace, and how they can stay unique, thus making them desirable. 
7. When people in groups, teams, or relationships do not properly communicate thoughts, instructions, dates, or tasks. 
1. Why 1? They are only thinking of themselves and ensuring their needs are met by completing something, scheduling something, etc and do not inform the other member(s) of the meeting date, change(s), things to be done, etc until the last minute or not at all. 
2. Why 2? They have not established a priority on mutual accountability and ensuring that they are a contributing member of the group/team.
8. When people procrastinate despite knowing deadlines and having the time to complete tasks in advance. 
1. Why 1? They operate based on the deadline and doing the bare minimum instead of having a good work ethic and being focused on always being ahead.
2. Why 2? They don't plan their time, resources, or manage their priorities properly, thus procrastinating the more important items on their lists to do the small, unimportant tasks first so that they feel like they accomplished something. 
9. When others drive slow in the left (fast) lane, specifically on every road that is 4+ lanes. 
1. Why 1? They have no concept of how the flow of traffic operates and that most states have laws that require you to move out of the way if you are slower than the car behind you. 
2. Why 2? They do not care about why the person behind them may need to get somewhere faster or how they could potentially cause an accident by making the faster traffic have to pass them and others in the right hand lanes of the road. 
10. When people drive in the rain without their lights on.
1. Why 1? Similar to #9, they are either ignorant of state driving laws requiring them to have their lights on. 
2. Why 2? They do not care about the safety of themselves or others when driving and are happy to accept the risks involved with not being seen in a rain storm. 
11. When we waste time in the military (or when anyone wastes time for that matter).
1. Why 1? Leadership of the team, unit, etc did not properly plan the mission or priorities to accomplish, thus creating large time voids that could be compressed into more effective training periods. 
2. Why 1? Leaders are more focused on what they have to accomplish rather than ensure their subordinates are properly prepared and equipped to fill in any blank time periods. 
12. When it takes Taco Bell 20 minutes to make you 3 tacos at 11pm at night.
1. Why 1? Because Taco Bell understaffs their locations. 
2. Why 2? Because the staff of the restaurants are not being trained on the importance of quality fast service in preparing and delivering fast food. 
3. Why 3? Their staff doesn't really care.
13. When my computer freezes in the middle of me doing 5 tasks with 10 windows open and makes me restart it.
1. Why 1? The computer is overloaded with programs running and tasks it is performing and needs more resources to accomplish what I'm asking of it.
2. Why 2? The computers processor and resources are out dated, thus limiting it's capabilities. 
14. It bugs me when Walmart only has 2 registers open (most of the time), despite having 20 registers. 
1. Why 1? Walmart does everything they can to minimize overhead to increase profitability, regardless of customer service. 
2. Why 2? They do not appear to train their staff on the values of customer service to create a desire to jump into action to help reduce customer problems.
15. It bugs me that Airlines have not adjusted to modern body sizes and customer seating preference, despite knowing how uncomfortable their passengers are. 
1. Why 1? Airlines (specifically American Airlines), are in the business of making money, and while every dollar counts, they appear to put profits in front of customer comfort and preference because they know people don't have a good alternative for long distance travel.
2. Why 2? It would cost a significant amount of money to put aircraft out of commission to do upgrades on the planes from both being downed and the actual upgrade costs. Those costs outweigh the gains they would get for customer satisfaction. 
16. People texting and driving because it is incredibly dangerous and creates a situation that is worse than drinking and driving. 
1. Why 1? Society has shifted to a focus on instant gratification and connection. People are unable to control their curiosity and have patience to wait to do things at the better time to do so.
2. Why 2? Governments have not placed severe punishments for the actions of doing this and the risk vs reward is far higher in the reward category to them. The instant gratification of knowing what was sent to them and being able to provide their response matters more than the small consequences of being caught, currently. 
17. It bugs me that people get over excited and hyped about potential weather events prematurely resulting in a loss of revenue for businesses not in the construction or grocery trades.
1. Why 1? The media utilizes the POTENTIAL weather event as content and story lines to draw in ratings. 
2. Why 2? Government are over paranoid because of not wanting to look like New Orleans when Katrina hit, but creating a situation where the boy that cried wolf will eventually result in loss of life from people no longer caring to head warnings. 
18. Customers believe they are always right, despite the fact they hired a professional for services for a reason, they couldn't do what they needed.
1. Why 1? To reverse the negative perceptions created by brands that neglected customer service, they pushed very hard in the new millennium for great customer service. Big brands defined that as, the customer is always right. However, when hiring a professional for a service, you are doing so to lean on their experience and expertise. You must be willing to trust in that provider, not blindly, but with reason as it is typically in their best interest to serve the customer with the best service possible. 
2. Why 2? Brands do not want to be perceived as not caring about their customers by telling them no. However, they actually do their customers a disservice by allowing them to make purchases or investments that do not actually benefit them. This is a systematic belief that should be confronted.
19. Not discipling children and setting them up for failure in life is unacceptable and infuriating. 
1. Why 1? Society has created an exaggerated response to child abuse, removing the ability for parents to strictly discipline their children. While child abuse should never occur, parents must have the ability to take away electronics, grab their children by the hand if they are moving away, or take necessary means to teach them right from wrong. 
2. Why 2? There has been a mental change with the current generation that we want to be our children's friend more than their guidance. While, you certainly want to be approachable, you must also be able to stand up and enforce proper morals to your children. It is more important for who they become than having a new best friend. 
20. Facebook and what seems to be every digital screen in America forcing you to watch an ad before you can use their screen or watch a video. 
1. Why 1? Marketers are looking for an alternative way to mass market because of the significant decrease in results from interruption marketing norms (tv commercials, radio, newspapers). So they are forcing you to watch the ads during your activities, despite creating a frustration now connected to that company's ad.
2. Why 2? It is another way for all of the platforms to generate significant revenue. Facebook decreased the reach and performance of Facebook Pages by changing algorithms, thus forcing businesses to look for additional methods to create brand awareness and engagement because their own ads and boosted posts have become less effective. 

My reflection is that I felt very negative while writing this and that it was rather difficult to identify 20 things and 40 causes that frustrate me. However, while there are a few that I don't know a true solution will ever exist for, there are several that have solutions identified through clarified the cause for their existence.