Better a day late with the podcast post than never, right? We generally keep it positive on Best of Both Worlds, but today’s episode is all about our pet peeves. A pet peeve, according to the dictionary, is something that bothers you, in particular, far beyond what would be expected based on how others react to it. We all have them…and in this episode we talk about them!
For instance, I can’t stand movies/TVs playing in public places where you are forced to watch and listen. In keeping with the nature of pet peeves, this doesn’t bother Sarah at all! She gets particularly riled up by printers failing and pens smudging. Then there are the work texts sent on nights and weekends about non-urgent things. I get way more worked up about the wrong form of you’re/your (or the direction “resonate” is used…) than I should probably admit.
Anyway, we all have pet peeves, and sometimes listing them is an exercise in self-awareness. Or at least a reminder to laugh at some of them!
In the question section, we address a query from a listener who is dealing with the financial ramifications of a divorce, and trying to figure out how she should change her budget. We also (earlier in the episode) discuss Sarah’s upcoming birthday (not a milestone one this time!). If you’d like to wish her a happy birthday, she’d appreciate a review or rating wherever you listen to podcasts!
Happy Birthday Sarah!
Sarah’s comment about getting an email over the weekend made me think of Gretchen Ruben’s tip about weekend/late night emails. Her sister/co-host told her it stresses some people out to get emails over the weekend or late at night so she now schedules those emails to be sent on Monday morning or early the next day. That way it’s “off her plate” and she doesn’t have to cause anyone stress. I thought that was a good idea as I am like Sarah and would rather not read something over the weekend that can’t be dealt with right away.
I liked this episode and did not think of it as whining at all. I totally share the dog off leash pet peeve. I am personally afraid of dogs and very uncomfortable around them so I HATE encountering an off leash dog during a run or walk. There’s a reason it’s a rule!
I agree with almost all of yours, Laura. My biggest pet peeve is when people do not turn their turn signal off after turning. Blink. Blink. BLINK.
I totally agree with you about the word “gifted” as in “I was gifted something”. Drives me nuts! Gift is not a verb.
I may have a solution to sarahs peeve about pointless meetings where you can’t just take charge. Sometimes I’ve been in a situation where there is a series of meetings that are wasting my time or are not progressing a project that I want progressed, but they aren’t “my” meetings so I can’t take charge. In these cases I often offer to do the minutes for the next meeting. When you have a good minutes template on the screen with a specific column for actions it’s easy to ask after any meandering discussion “so what’s the action I should put in here” or similar. Being a minute taker allows you to take charge without undermining the person who “owns” the meeting. Of course you need to be quick typist to get this done during the meeting and not be just adding on extra work for yourself afterwards.
Laura, I also find it hard to work in noisy places and I use earplugs a lot. Not earbuds to listen to music just actual earplugs to reduce noise. You can buy big packs of foam earplugs online pretty cheaply. Might help.
ooh, I like this! Thank you! Would not always be possible with some of my roles (people would look at me sideways if I volunteered to do minutes in some circumstances) but in others could potentially work!
” I can’t stand movies/TVs playing in public places where you are forced to watch and listen. ”
oi, that is definitely one of my huge pet peeves!! Along the same lines: I can’t stand it when people in public places are on the phone…on speaker! So you are forced to listen to the ENTIRE conversation, on both sides. Whyyy??
One of these days, I will specifically listen for private information, and approach the stranger afterward, totally afterward, to (in a very exaggerated manner) apologize for what they’re going through. (ex.: *turn to them suddenly* “I just wanted to say how SO sorry I am about your UTI–that sounds aweful! I hope you feel better soon!”)
Sarah remarked about meetings and how to do them better. I wanted to reach out because yes indeed there are people who help others with their meeting hygiene. I’ve been coaching others on this for many years as an HR and people operations professional so wanted to reach out in case you want to chat further. May we never waste time in an unstructured meeting again!
When Sara said about the grammar that she wasn’t annoyed and just thinks ‘awww poor them’ I was thinking I how she doesn’t think ‘awe’ instead of ‘awww’ (which is one of my pet peeves).
@Kathryn – oh yes. And don’t get me started on “free rein” NOT “free reign” 🙂
I would never make that grammar mistake 🙂
I have never heard anyone misuse ‘resonate’ but 100% agree that if I had heard it used as Laura described, it would drive me nuts. I’m not unique in this but alllll the common grammar mistakes make me crazy. You’re/your, their/there/they’re, two/to/too, and YES to loose vs. lose. Also wondering vs. wandering. Oh! And my favorite one to hate, from my husband and his family (and likely the region in which he was raised): “It needs cleaned,” or “The room needs vacuumed.” WHERE ARE THE INFINITIVES? What about, “It needs TO BE cleaned,” as a correct alternative!?!!? Makes me crazy. Crazy! [steps down from soapbox]
@KGC – if you watch carefully you’ll start to see the misuse of resonate all over the place. And unfortunately, it’s often written/said when someone wants to express something heartfelt, which then makes me then feel bad for thinking about the grammar.
My pet peeve is people who “reply all” to group emails or messages. Especially text messages, which I think should be used only when you need someone’s attention immediately. I sing with a jazz ensemble. There are nine of us. All are very polite. But do I really need to be alerted to eight “thank you’s” every time someone does something on behalf of the group? One of them even clicks the “love” symbol when someone says thank you. The constant dinging of message alerts makes it hard to work.
@Jackie – Constant dinging is annoying! I’m pretty sure you can silence/hide alerts for group texts – I’m on one particularly large and active one where people cheer each other on, which is awesome, but yes, 8 “like” dings can be rough. So it’s set not to notify me, and I occasionally look at my phone, see 30 text messages and assume that conversation is the one going on.
Not sure if this is so much of an issue in the US but I hate “should of” and “would of” and “could of” instead of “should have/should’ve”, “would have/would’ve” and “could have/could’ve”. My other pet spelling peeve is definitely not an issue in the US becuase you have cleverly (?) decided not to differentiate between the noun and the verb in licence/license, practice/practise etc. ! It drives me mad when educated people, like the lawyers I deal with regularly as a lawyer myself don’t seem to know the difference. Pedantic, moi?!