Is it right to complain when you knew exactly what you were
getting yourself into? What I mean is,
if the situation was clear to you before it began, and you had a choice, don't
you forfeit any right to whine and moan?
Last week I took a bus trip to go skiing. Everyone chose to go on the trip and paid
their money. At the same time, some
people cancelled at the last minute, but were not chastised in any way, or even
charged money for the trip. Almost all
of them (I would guess that in fact it was each and every one of them, but I
didn't bother taking survey) had a smart phone--certainly all of them had
access to a television. So when the
weather report was forecasting a somewhat cold temperature (minus 17 I think)
it wasn't really out of the blue.
None of this would have mattered if it didn't change the
rules. What it did was shorten the trip
by one hour before it even begun.
Fearing the cold, despite wearing some rather expensive thermal gear,
many people grumbled and got the trip ending changed. Of course this was decided before anyone got
on the slopes or even tried to cope with the cold.
Had I not wanted to ski, or fallen, or been having a
miserable day, I wouldn't have tried to get everyone to leave early. I would have gone to the lodge to stay warm
and waited. If I had felt I was too
cold, I would have either not gone on the trip, or waited in the warm
lounge. At the very least I would have
set a midday meeting before making any of these decisions.
As it was, most of the people who lobbied for early release
arrived late for the bus. I guess they
were enjoying themselves skiing, despite the cold.
