Whingy whiners

For many of us out there, the workplace is certainly a very complex environment. When I was a kid growing up, I'd look forward to becoming finally an adult and joining the corporate world and have financial freedom. Now as an adult, in retrospect it's much better to be student. The world has evolved, cultures become more integrated and hierachical structures are much more flatter. It's no longer "do it because the boss said so and the business expects it", but now apparently employees expect more "let me explain why we have to do this". HUH?? Ok so people want to feel involved, feel connected (and all other feel good emotional crap) but a line really needs to be drawn between genuine and reasonable feedback, vs whining. Do teachers have to explain and justify to students why homework is necessary? Do parents have to justify to children why they need to be back by curfew? If the company pays you a salary to do a job, then do the job. Whinging on how "I don't like to do this" is clearly immature. So is demanding an explanation for every task. Dude, did you all not read the job description? In an article I read, apparently it's called "entitlement mentality"In economics, there's no such thing as a free lunch, but in singaporean speak, apparently people will even complain and whine about the quality of their free lunch.

On the other hand, getting reasonable and genuine feedback and doing nothing about improving the situation is clearly a no-no either. People do get frustrated. Look at how our government deals with the issue of traffic woes. Increase ERP? Increase surcharges? With inflation getting out of hand, how is increase in cost of living justified? The standard response is, Don't whine, just do it because we have a pool of brilliant scholars who did a comprehensive study and we're convinced its' in the best interest of the people. OK, so when did these brilliant scholars last stepped into an overcrowded MRT or bus during peak hours hmm? If govt paid us a salary then I'd say ok maybe we're obliged not to whine, but as tax payers, where's our right to voice and be heard?