How to complain

Everyone complains at some point in their life. People complain both professionally and in their private lives. The most base form of complaint is "X sucks". That's no good to anyone. Even if you use more politically correct wording than "sucks". You need to expand on your complaint if you want things to change.
January 09 2014

The manner in which people complain has long bothered me.   So often people will complain about the thing annoying them and stop there.  For example "This TV show is stupid" or "What my boss is asking me to do is dumb".  This statement of dissatisfcation doesn't help anyone and more than likely the only outcome will be someone getting upset or thinking the complainer is a tool.

If someone has a complaint they've often given the thing their complaining about some thought.  They've weighed it up against another scenario and found it not to their liking.  During that thought they've identified what it is they don't like about what they're complaining about.  Perhaps they've even thought of solutions to their issue, evaluated subconsciously.

Instead, the of just blurting out the complaint, what the person should do is offer their complaint and at least give the reason of their complaint.

eg. What my boss is asking me to do doesn't make a whole lot of sense because the client is only a small business and cannot afford the expsense of a teleporter.

A better approach would be: What my boss ias asking me to do doesn't make a whole lot of sense because the client is a only a small business and cannot afford the expense of a teleporter.  Perhaps we should offer to ship their purchase using international express airfreight.


Using the approach of not complaining unless you know what it is you're complaining about, and better yet, can offer at least one solution, no matter how daft, doesn't take much more effort than the thoughtless complaint.

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