From today's Dear Margo. I immediately thought of VRS and his many many stories...
Dear Margo: I work in the vacation rental industry, and the company I work with manages more than a thousand beach cottages and condos in the Deep South. This means we have over a thousand cottage owners and tens of thousands of guests. Never in my life did I think so many people could be so unhappy about vacations! I am amazed every day by vacation guests who go on vacation just to be miserable. Then we have the homeowners who make good money renting their cottages, but get very unhappy when they have to spend money on the upkeep of their properties. There isn't a day that goes by that someone isn't yelling at me. I'm in my mid-50s and have decided not to allow people to yell at me any longer. When someone starts yelling, I ask them to stop, and if they don't, I either walk away or lay the phone down until they realize no one is there. I have been accused of not giving good customer service because I won't tolerate the yelling, but I have already had one heart attack due to stress and don't want another. Why do so many people enjoy being miserable when it is so easy to be happy? — Not a Beach Bum
Dear Not: Ah, you sound like a philosopher, as well as a rental agent. From the outside, it might seem that people who could either afford to own vacation cottages or rent them would have a certain level of comfort that would allow them to be on an even keel. Real life, however, has taught us that economic security does not correlate to emotional calm. It's not that people "enjoy being miserable"; it's that they respond to whatever flies in the ointment present themselves. When there are not serious problems, people respond to anything perceived as an annoyance ... and that becomes the "serious problem" of the moment. And I applaud your response to yelling. — Margo, philosophically
Dear Not: Ah, you sound like a philosopher, as well as a rental agent. From the outside, it might seem that people who could either afford to own vacation cottages or rent them would have a certain level of comfort that would allow them to be on an even keel. Real life, however, has taught us that economic security does not correlate to emotional calm. It's not that people "enjoy being miserable"; it's that they respond to whatever flies in the ointment present themselves. When there are not serious problems, people respond to anything perceived as an annoyance ... and that becomes the "serious problem" of the moment. And I applaud your response to yelling. — Margo, philosophically
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