By Grumpy Old Supply Chain Person
(Found scribbled, in crayon, on the back of an old cardboard box)
April 21, 2022 — The propagation of social media, in all of forms, has done more to advance the cause of “Professional Grumpiness” than I could have ever hoped for.
I mean, honestly, in the old days you had to actually see people or, at the very least, get them on the phone to really be grumpy with them. I mean, yeah, you might get on T.V. or get to speak in public, but so few of us actually get to do that. Now, there are all of these chances to really be grumpy, to express your grumpy opinions in so many formats, regardless of the platform’s original intent.
For example, there may be a platform that was originally intended to help people network for business but now offers so much grumpiness. You can post whatever you like. So what if a post may cause some customers not to use your services or products? So what if it may cost you a chance at a good job or lose a potentially great employee or in other ways reflect badly on your company and/or cost the loss of a job?
You can, without giving it a second thought, post your current thoughts on a subject and who cares whose feelings are hurt. In addition, you have all of these great opportunities to respond to other people’s posts, criticizing without all the information and making assumptions with no real facts. Who cares if people are offended or disagree? If they don’t want to work with you, buy from you, follow you, that’s their problem. It’s a Grumpy Person’s dream come true.
Oh sure, there are people who will not like your posts or try to remind you that we should keep business to business and politics and other issues on separate platforms. Those people are clearly WRONG! How can you continue prove how much smarter and funnier you are than everyone else, if you are not consistently posting thoughts and ideas that come to you with no filter or take a breath, before hitting ENTER?
Oh sure, some people push back, complain about your comments and replies, and ask you to be nicer. Don’t take a second and think about it, you might feel bad. Don’t take the second to do that. Instead, choose to be offended and ask people why they are attacking you for no reason, it’s much easier to enable and share grumpiness than to consider other feelings or be accountable for your actions.
Good job all my grumpy friends!