“POLR”
POLR. Path Of Least Resistance. Laziness. Convenience.
I’d like to thank several sterling examplars of POLR who have vividly demonstrated to me the damage that POLR-thinking is doing to us all. Or maybe it’s just me.
Two gobby girls on a train to Glasgow who vaped next to me inside the train, then hurled abuse and ridicule for asking them to stop, then carried on vaping because it was easier for them to abuse me than to engage with me and try to see my point of view.
The staff at a local Starbucks who interrupted their “aren’t customers a nuisance” chat to serve me with the minimum necessary communication to tick their “job description” (take order, take money, give coffee, next) without wasting time on trivialities like politeness or personal engagement or silly old-fashioned things like “please” and “thank you”.
The Scotrail staff member at a train station who answered my polite enquiry about where to pay an excess fare by loudly reciting a pat response, learned through regular tired overuse, over his shoulder at me while continuing to efficiently multitask (i.e. continue his chat with his similarly dismissive colleague about the footie).
The van driver who thought it wiser to thunder through a zebra crossing and make me jump backwards onto the kerb rather than waste perfectly good brake pads and tyre rubber to brake from the 50% over the speed limit he was doing in order to minimise wasted time in his working day by wastefully stopping for ten seconds.
A new friend of mine, a publishing industry professional, lovely, lovely, person, recently remarked to me that the world could be so much nicer if more people made even a modicum of effort to be nicer to each other. She looked as miserable saying that as I felt agreeing with her.
Anyone else regularly feel like saying “Stop the world. I want to get off”?