Southern Sloppies

One of the symptoms I've noticed about the South is how spineless people are when calling you out on mistakes. Yes, I'm venting on my lunch hour. Here's a typical example. When working as a journalist, my boss came up to me one day and said, "Someone called and said you need to make a correction on your Development Authority article. The second to the last paragraph is inaccurate." O.k. I responded by saying this was what was said at the meeting. "It doesn't matter." "Well, who called in to make the complaint?" "It doesn't matter. We're going to have to run a retraction for the next issue." Translation: If you don't like the message, blame the messenger.

The South is completely opposite from New England and other places I've worked and lived in. In New England, people are considered rude for how blunt they are. I don't consider someone's uninhibited honesty as a sign of rudeness. This way, I'm not having to guess for future endeavors what I need to do to correct past mistakes or accomodate this person's requests. Bottom line, don't be a pussy if you have a problem with someone. Have some balls or pussy control to be up front and express your qualms.

Yesterday, some jackass at our main account was completely disorganized. I knew today exactly whom made the complaint. Naturally, I received the proverbial, "We provide them a service. It doesn't matter who said it. Just monitor what you're doing." This guy who made the complaint had his work station completely dishoveled, so I couldn't completely fix his mess he created. Plus, I made a sarcastic comment to him one day when he was trying to be pushy with me. This tells me a lot about the Southern culture as a whole. Yes, I make mistakes but don't call me out on them. This observation can also be applied to the sloppy, reckless Conservative pundits.