I Hate ________

It seems that there is always something that comes up during the week that leads me into this line of thinking: "I hate (something)! How hard is it to (Blank) instead of passing the buck onto the next person?" I am genuinely conflicted on the matter.

When I was learning to drive, I would verbally question every jerk on the road who would cut people off or not let them merge or otherwise drive like an asshole. My father would grow angry with me and yell at me to stop asking why. In truth, asking why didn't really solve the matter at hand. 'If that person would just be more considerate, what a wonderful world this would be...' I would put this in the 'Nothing will change so get on with your life' category. There is nothing I can do to correct this problem, so I should just keep my blinders on and focus on the problems in front of me.

The other is a problem I encounter at work. If a contractor fails to do his homework, and they try to pass the problem to us (this is rare, we really do get to work with some excellent contractors) then we send it back and say that it is their problem. Basically, we don't pick up someone else's slack if we don't have to. I would put this in the 'you need to solve your own problems, buddy' category.

The conflict arises when someone else should be doing their own work, and try to pass the buck, and I know I can make the situation better by picking up where they left off. It's 'Nothing will change (i.e. the contractor isn't going to do what he is supposed to) so get on with your life (and make this work)' vs. the 'you (Mr. contractor) need to solve your own problems (even though they will affect the outcome of the built design).'

What to do?