It takes quite a bit of piss taking before I will challenge someone on their behaviour, but I do like to have a moan and complain.
If I hold a door open and someone walks through I'll say 'thank you for holding the door' and if someone pushes in a queue I'll politely ask 'have you any idea why I'm actually stood here?'
I don't know really if I should be more tolerant or whether people need to be more mindful of others.
Most of the time I find people are less tolerant and mindful of others when they're travelling.
The other week I took a short flight to Northern Ireland. On this flight I was in an aisle seat, seated next to a man who had his arm in a cast, because of this his arm was hanging over my seat. A woman sat in a front with a small child and for the entire flight, played a children's TV show with the volume on full on her phone to entertain the child. The seat in the aisle opposite me was occupied by a young man with headphones on and his music on his phone could be heard. behind me sat a woman who struggled to physically fit in her seat and his knees pushed into my back the entire flight.
Did I say anything? No, not at first. I sat on an angle, with my elbow being knocked by crew and passengers going to the toilet. When I tried to straighten myself into an upright position, Mr broken arm exerted his right to my air space, no eye contact was made, no apology, no polite smile. I just had to tolerate it, along with the two iPhones and their volume. However when the woman behind stood up, pulling on my seat and grabbing part of my hair as she did so, I let out an audible sigh and muttered FFS.
On her return from the toilet, I got a dirty look, followed by pulling on my chair and pushing her knees into my back.
When I turned round in the aisle to ask her to refrain she said: 'what do you want me to do?'
I replied with: 'maybe try a smile, apologise for inconveniencing me and pulling my hair'
She replied: 'whatever'
I accommodated and tolerated everyone around me, until the point where my hair was pulled, however they were not mindful of me or anyone else around them. I'll assume they all had a good flight and were comfortable with their arrangements. I'll also assume that the woman behind me who pulled my hair probably thought I wasn't at all tolerant of her needs and the man next to me with his arm in a cast, just saw it as his right and was probably not aware that he was causing me any problem in any way.
Do you complain when someone inconveniences you? Or do you just sigh, tut and mutter and hope they don't hear you to avoid any confrontation?
Sometimes it's just not worth saying anything, however polite I am, I also end up being the bad guy.
