“I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore!”

THE TITLE’S FAMOUS quote from the 1976 film Network seems to sum up how a lot of people are feeling these days about — everything. “People have lost their minds,” my wife often says after returning from errands. People also rail that they are “over” everything, from things out of their hands (the pandemic, winter weather) to things more in their control (hiring new employees).

So, we decided to try to have a little fun with our culture of complaining by offering “33 Things That Most Annoy Sign Pros.” The professionals who passed along their peccadillos torch everyone from customers with their crappy artwork and ridiculous expectations, to competitors engaged in a race to the bottom, to pusillanimous permitters, the public and even their own employees. Enjoy the read and if you think of a pet peeve not named, send it to editor@signsofthetimes.com.

“Press 1 to continue,” says the automated phone attendant in that voice that’s supposed to sound nice, but in fact only serves to tick people off. That’s why automated phone attendants (or bot chats) are the choice of nearly half of the Brain Squad who answered our recent survey’s One Quick Question: “When working with big corporations, what money-saving or money-making strategy annoys you most?” (see page 50).

We feel that if only people could have a little fun with what’s annoying them, they might be able to get over being over everything.