You’ve made me feel awful about feeling awful after the job you’ve done.

I don’t want you to feel bad. Please send me your invoice.
Preferably whilst you’re standing in front of me, making up a price.

Apparently, I’m the meanie.

Expecting people to turn up on time.
Expecting people to clear up after themselves.
Expecting a designer to know how to design.
Expecting pride in their work.

Every time something goes wrong. I’m there.
The common denominator.

The world is rammed with people who suck at their jobs. Not because they’re bad people, or out to get you. They’ve just risen to their level of incompetence. It’s not that they won’t do a better job next time.

They can’t.

One of you reading this is afflicted with a nasty case of the high standards.

Anger that has nowhere to go but inward.
An inner tyrant flogging you to the brink every day.

Too stressed. Too overwhelmed. Too angry.

Too trusting that they’d turn up on time and plug everything in.
Too trusting that the foldable item would be foldable.
Too trusting that the generic exercise silhouettes wouldn’t poke each other in the eyes and genitals.

The problem: When they screw up, it’s not just incompetence; it’s their character.
When you screw up, it’s down to the circumstances.

The world and everyone in it are out to get you.

The temptation is to go the other way.

Watch everything. Trust no one. Do it all yourself.
Take radical responsibility.
Embrace being the common denominator.

Life would be easier that way.

On this occasion, I think I’ll go with they’re a bunch of useless cu*ts, and I won’t and can’t accept the ever-increasing lowering of the bar.

Another job not well done.

Standards, who’d have ’em?