Queue jumping...what are your thoughts?
The other day my friend and i went to a show to watch his girlfriend perform. It was at a venue without tiered seating, so you can only see properly if you're at the front. Having been to these events before, we arrived an hour early to secure a spot in the queue so that we could get good seats. There were already about 15 people waiting when we first arrived. As we waited, the line grew significantly, stretching halfway down the street, and we noticed that a couple of people in the line were letting in friends. At first this didnt bother us, but when everyone ahead of us were letting in friends and the line in front us grew from 15 to something like 30, we were a bit annoyed, easpecaily when after a hour of waiting, 2 people joined their friend right near the front of the line. However, we were werent annoyed enough to act on the situation. Instead, we merely intellectualised the situation calmly and tried to analyse it- yes we are total nerds! We spent our time in the queue enjoying our conversation and had a long and humerous (probably hideously boring and painful to the poor people around us) conversation about the nature of queue jumping.
Normally he and i are both very outspoken and assertive people. Normally, i politely point out where the queue starts when people jump in front of me. But for our reasons we didnt say anything, and practically ignored the situation until the very end. Mainly because i didnt think it was that big a deal, and i was certain i would still get a good enough seat despite the people jumping the line.
I found it interesting because i could pick up the vibe clearly that most of the people jumping the queue felt bad about it, like they knew they were doing the 'wrong' thing. They were pretty embarassed and were hoping that they wouldnt be noticed doing the socially unacceptable thing. The people behind us were clearly pissed off every time people snuck in (we could hear them seething), but they didnt say anything to the people. And then there were other people that were all defiant about it, like they had the right to walk up to the front of the queue.
I figured there were some people that hadnt been to the venue before and they may not have understood the nature of the seating, so they would not have understood that they were inconveniencing other people by jumping the line.
I could also tell that one of the group ahead of us was embarassed and not happy when 3 'friends' (he didnt know 2 of their names) walked up and joined him.
I found it interesting that if one person jumps the line, it doesnt seem so bad, but when a whole bunch of people do it, it seems much worse. And then feeling frustration towards the last person that jumped the line is stupid, because that person is just the last one to do something that a whole bunch of other people got away with.
And theres that social pressure people feel to 'let their friends in'. Personally, i have let people into a queue before, but i have initiated the situation by asking the people around me for permission first. And there was a time when a large group of my friends rocked up to a line at a small concert...rather than letting them in i opted to join them at the back of the line.
Anyways....ramblings here...we got in and got an awesome seat. We recognised that pretty much the whole front row were people that had jumped the queue. For some reason, i had trouble not judging them as somehow .....lets say 'shitty' for lack of a better word. Whenever, i looked at them, i would think -'yeah those are the dicks that jumped the line.' That line of thinking really bothered me, because i didnt believe i had any right to judge these people and their character based on one social incident. Furthermore, i didnt believe that they would necessarily act in the same way given a similar situation. And lastly, if it had meant so much to me, i should have said something to begin with. Anyways...eventually i forgot about them and enjoyed our night, and i really did get a great seat anyway, so in truth i was in no way inconvenienced.
............end
What are your thoughts on queue jumping?
Do you do it?
Do you normally say something- why or why not?
Do you let friends jump in the queue?
The other day my friend and i went to a show to watch his girlfriend perform. It was at a venue without tiered seating, so you can only see properly if you're at the front. Having been to these events before, we arrived an hour early to secure a spot in the queue so that we could get good seats. There were already about 15 people waiting when we first arrived. As we waited, the line grew significantly, stretching halfway down the street, and we noticed that a couple of people in the line were letting in friends. At first this didnt bother us, but when everyone ahead of us were letting in friends and the line in front us grew from 15 to something like 30, we were a bit annoyed, easpecaily when after a hour of waiting, 2 people joined their friend right near the front of the line. However, we were werent annoyed enough to act on the situation. Instead, we merely intellectualised the situation calmly and tried to analyse it- yes we are total nerds! We spent our time in the queue enjoying our conversation and had a long and humerous (probably hideously boring and painful to the poor people around us) conversation about the nature of queue jumping.
Normally he and i are both very outspoken and assertive people. Normally, i politely point out where the queue starts when people jump in front of me. But for our reasons we didnt say anything, and practically ignored the situation until the very end. Mainly because i didnt think it was that big a deal, and i was certain i would still get a good enough seat despite the people jumping the line.
I found it interesting because i could pick up the vibe clearly that most of the people jumping the queue felt bad about it, like they knew they were doing the 'wrong' thing. They were pretty embarassed and were hoping that they wouldnt be noticed doing the socially unacceptable thing. The people behind us were clearly pissed off every time people snuck in (we could hear them seething), but they didnt say anything to the people. And then there were other people that were all defiant about it, like they had the right to walk up to the front of the queue.
I figured there were some people that hadnt been to the venue before and they may not have understood the nature of the seating, so they would not have understood that they were inconveniencing other people by jumping the line.
I could also tell that one of the group ahead of us was embarassed and not happy when 3 'friends' (he didnt know 2 of their names) walked up and joined him.
I found it interesting that if one person jumps the line, it doesnt seem so bad, but when a whole bunch of people do it, it seems much worse. And then feeling frustration towards the last person that jumped the line is stupid, because that person is just the last one to do something that a whole bunch of other people got away with.
And theres that social pressure people feel to 'let their friends in'. Personally, i have let people into a queue before, but i have initiated the situation by asking the people around me for permission first. And there was a time when a large group of my friends rocked up to a line at a small concert...rather than letting them in i opted to join them at the back of the line.
Anyways....ramblings here...we got in and got an awesome seat. We recognised that pretty much the whole front row were people that had jumped the queue. For some reason, i had trouble not judging them as somehow .....lets say 'shitty' for lack of a better word. Whenever, i looked at them, i would think -'yeah those are the dicks that jumped the line.' That line of thinking really bothered me, because i didnt believe i had any right to judge these people and their character based on one social incident. Furthermore, i didnt believe that they would necessarily act in the same way given a similar situation. And lastly, if it had meant so much to me, i should have said something to begin with. Anyways...eventually i forgot about them and enjoyed our night, and i really did get a great seat anyway, so in truth i was in no way inconvenienced.
............end
What are your thoughts on queue jumping?
Do you do it?
Do you normally say something- why or why not?
Do you let friends jump in the queue?
