Getting things done in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Alright alright already... the complaint post, in edited form - enjoy

It’s a funny place this, although for long time readers this is a concept I bring up often. The latest thing to catch my eye won’t make me popular (as I mentioned in yesterday’s post) but given that I often go week to week speaking only to shop attendants, it’s safe to assume the fallout won’t affect my dance card too dramatically: so… on with the show.

This post is about personal interactions… and complaints… because it seems that even if some folk found themselves in the best place in the world, they still couldn't help but bitch.

Interestingly the people I hear complain the loudest all come from one nation, or maybe I am just lucky enough to see them at a bad time of their day - Consistently.

It’s not the complaining specifically that I find so interesting, (this blog is full of observations on life here that I find funny, quaint and COULD be construed as complaining). I guess it’s the manner in which the complaint is often made. Or if not complaining directly, there is often a meanness of superior position that is injected into the transaction, thereby creating a negative and impossible situation - if only for a moment.

Follow up:

For instance, 3 weeks ago we were at Abu Dhabi Airport, in the new terminal - conducting our usual, if somewhat odd ritual of purchasing Airport Burger King.

Order done, we stood aside so that the person behind us could get close to the register - thereby diminishing the need for the BK person to take the order over our shoulders.

“What would you like ma’am” said the BK champion.
“Oh we’d like a cheeseburger ”.

Unusual - as there was only the one person there - unless of course the ‘we’ included some odd conjoined sibling that was hidden beneath her cardigan. I then reappraised the situation to realise that she was speaking for herself, and her dining companion - who was no doubt sitting on at a Burger King table “tut tutting” at the state of things, in lieu of having someone to complain directly to as her friend was away purchasing lunch.

And probably taking too long.

“Yes maa’am, but would you like to have a drink”
“What do you have?”
“CokeSpriteFantaDiiiieeeet”
“Oh no she won’t like thaart”

Then there was silence - during which the customer stared directly at the BK attendant, implying that it was now the attendant's problem to resolve what the elusive “she” would like to drink, as her selection of drinks was obviously sub standard.

“Just the burger then maa’am?”
“Oh, I suppose I’ll have a coffee” she replied, in a huffy fashion.

She then turned to me and made a tutting noise, and a slight shake of the head as if to say that the person behind the jump was being obtuse, and had woken up this morning with no other purpose than to ruin someone’s day… a fantasy task that BK Burger Girl had apparently managed to accomplish - by midday no less.

What gives?

I am relatively sure that nowhere in the Burger King orientation manual is there a listing for:
Mind-reading - how to tell what the customer wants when there is no reply to the choices given.
1.1 Creating new menu items, and which level of hell to summon them from.

Again - if someone has a grievance, get it out - but surely there must be scope for self censoring. Knowing what is the problem of the company, VS what is the problem in the complainer’s life that all they have left is to throw rocks at some poor sap behind a fast food counter, who gets paid less per hour than the entire cost of the food-like stuff that was purchased in the transaction.

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