And it's only Monday.
I hate flakers. Flakers are people who give you little to no notice that they're not showing up. And usually without an explanation.
Let me correct that. I hate chronic flakers. Because everyone does it, but I like to think that most people do it for emergencies. For instance, if your car breaks down, and you're stuck on the side of the road, you're excused for missing a dinner date. However, if you agree to plans weeks beforehand, and simply call the morning of to back out, with no explanations, you're a flaker and a jerk. There's no reason to be flaky; it can almost always be avoided, if common courtesy and respect are involved. (Plans really should not be broken for any reason but an emergency, I think. You made the plans--too frigging bad if something else comes up. It's incredibly rude to leave people in the lurch, point blank.)
As a corollary to this pet peeve, there's the late committer, who says, "Maybe" until the morning of, at which point you've bought tickets/filled up the car with other folks/made other arrangements for the tickets/worked out a good time/made reservations for four and not five, etc. I understand not knowing right off the bat--calendars must be checked, confirmations with sigfigs, I get it. But you needn't wait until the morning of the event to decide you want to go. It's inconsiderate, and extremely trying. If you think there's a conflict, best to say no and take the hit if there isn't. You'll have to miss the concert/dinner/game etc.
Socializing is a disaster with people like this around. I used to think it was great to be spontaneous, but I think that's a load of crap now. It's not so great to be spontaneous when you're being an asshole to your friends. Not keeping plans; refusing to make plans--both bad.
(There is another corollary to these people, and that's the chronically late jerk who refuses to call and warn you. Dealing with people who are chronically late is an utter pain in the ass for people who are on time. [I personally believe in promptness in all things; better to be early than late, for EVERY SINGLE EVENT EVER.] However, I'm not so mad at the chronically late people right now, because at least they do eventually show up. And they're more than happy to make plans. So it's a slightly different problem, even if all three things are just plain old rude.)
Comments