ANDALUSIA RUG

The Squeaky Wheel: Complaining the Right Way to Get Results, Improve Your Relationships, and Enhance Self-Esteem

Although life was physically more difficult in the days of the horse and carriage, we complained much less back then, and when we did, our complaints were more likely to get results. Today we complain about everything--yet do so with remarkable ineffectiveness. Most of us grumble, vent, and kvetch, neither expecting nor getting meaningful resolutions. Wasting prodigious amounts of time and energy on unproductive complaints can take an emotional and psychological toll on our moods and well-being. We desperately need to relearn the art of complaining effectively.
Psychotherapist Guy Winch offers practical and psychologically grounded advice on how to determine what to complain about and what to let slide. He demonstrates how to convey our complaints in ways that encourage cooperation and increase the likelihood of getting resolutions to our dissatisfactions. The principles he spells out apply whether we’re dealing with a rude store clerk, a bureaucrat, a coworker, our teenager, or a spouse or partner who’s driving us crazy.
Complaining constructively can be extremely empowering and it can significantly strengthen our personal, familial, and work relationships. Applying our new-found complaining skills to customer service representatives, corporate leaders, and elected officials increases the odds that our comments will be taken seriously. If we all complained more effectively, squeaky wheels could change our own lives as well as the world for the better.

Although life was physically more difficult in the days of the horse and carriage, we complained much less back then, and when we did, our complaints were more likely to get results. Today we complain about everything--yet do so with remarkable ineffectiveness. Most of us grumble, vent, and kvetch, neither expecting nor getting meaningful resolutions. Wasting prodigious amounts of time and energy on unproductive complaints can take an emotional and psychological toll on our moods and well-being. We desperately need to relearn the art of complaining effectively.
Psychotherapist Guy Winch offers practical and psychologically grounded advice on how to determine what to complain about and what to let slide. He demonstrates how to convey our complaints in ways that encourage cooperation and increase the likelihood of getting resolutions to our dissatisfactions. The principles he spells out apply whether we’re dealing with a rude store clerk, a bureaucrat, a coworker, our teenager, or a spouse or partner who’s driving us crazy.
Complaining constructively can be extremely empowering and it can significantly strengthen our personal, familial, and work relationships. Applying our new-found complaining skills to customer service representatives, corporate leaders, and elected officials increases the odds that our comments will be taken seriously. If we all complained more effectively, squeaky wheels could change our own lives as well as the world for the better.

The big wheel recently got moved back up to the top level. It was originally there until the month that Squeaky decided to use the corner of that level as a second bathroom. It was a pain to clean and would spray out of the cage onto other things. I was reaching the point where I was going to go to the pet store and buy a second litter box when it occurred to me… hey wait a second, he’s only a six inch bit of fuzz, he does NOT get to remodel his cage building in a new bathroom!!! So for the past few months I switched his big wheel down to the first level in the hopes that tricking him would confuse him and make him forget. It seems to have worked. So I just moved it back up and I have my fingers crossed!

The wooden house was Brownie’s favorite house until she got too fat to fit in it. Then Henry had it for a while. When Henry passed away at the beginning of November, I had the house out next to the cage to clean his cage before putting it away. Squeaky liked the house so much he insisted on sitting in it for 30 minutes until I got the hint and moved it into his cage for him to play in.

We've been calling him Squeaky Goober: one, because he doesn't meow, but squeaks like a choking bird or one of those obnoxious squeaky toys that dogs carry around; and two, because that's the face of a goober if I've ever seen one. Here, he's coming to get the goober with the camera. Again, sorry for the focus.