Taken for Granted?

[Moonface]

What's something you've taken for granted or feel others take for granted?

One that comes to mind a lot for me lately is how I took all the vacation time I had as standard in the UK for granted and never made an effort to use all of it in a given year. For context, I would have almost four weeks of paid vacation time. Meanwhile in the US I currently get zero paid vacation which means if I want time off I run the risk of losing money.

I don't know if this one is taking it for granted but realizing just how much work goes into keeping a house in running order what with all the bills, chores, etc. that you don't really have a true understanding of until you move out and have to suddenly manage all of that stuff yourself.

[Mr EliteL]

Time.

"I got [amount of time], I have plenty of time." What feels to be like 20 mins or something, nah an hour's past already. Can be applied to anything concerning time. I did not feel like I had a 10-hour shift today, even with my slight anticipation for my shift to be over already, it ended much sooner than expected, and it was a freakin' Wednesday, that tends to be slow. Or at least usually feels like it too.

[Moonface]

Time.

"I got [amount of time], I have plenty of time." What feels to be like 20 mins or something, nah an hour's past already. Can be applied to anything concerning time. I did not feel like I had a 10-hour shift today, even with my slight anticipation for my shift to be over already, it ended much sooner than expected, and it was a freakin' Wednesday, that tends to be slow. Or at least usually feels like it too.

I think this has to be one that everyone has taken for granted at some point in their life, especially the younger they are. I remember when we were in college/uni and would get like four weeks for a project, and I'd drag my heels getting started because four weeks feels like so much time. And sure, it was, but instead of managing a project to be a breeze over four weeks, I'd procrastinate and suddenly have to pump it out in a week which would involve multiple nights of being up beyond midnight.
I don't do that with school projects anymore because of not wanting to go through that experience again, but it took me a long while to bring that mindset to work, where I would be all "Oh, I still have an hour, plenty of time to level my section, fill the specials, sweep the cooler, fill the ice, do the counts" and then I'd be scrambling to finish some of those tasks before my shift would be over. Now I get that stuff out the way earlier, so that what I'm doing at the end of the shift is random stock that isn't an urgent thing to get done so I can pack up and punch out on the dot without having to rush or anything. It's funny, because I start work at 5am to work delivery off the pallets before the store opens at 7am since we can't bring pallets out to the floor once we're open, and I will bust ass to get as much done as I can in those two hours because it means an easier time once I can't bring pallets out anymore, and I had that mindset very shortly after starting 5am shifts, but it took a while for me to bring that "Get it out the way now so you don't have to do it later when it's harder" mentality to the tail end of my shifts. XD

[WR91]

I feel people take me for granted in my personal life. But maybe that's why I cut a lot of people off in the past few years. I've opened my eyes to it and simply won't take the emotional abuse of being taken for granted.

[Moonface]

I feel people take me for granted in my personal life. But maybe that's why I cut a lot of people off in the past few years. I've opened my eyes to it and simply won't take the emotional abuse of being taken for granted.

I think everyone encounters this with at least one person in their life. I'm pretty sure my current job took me for granted until I got badly injured and had to be off stock work for a couple of months, during which the majority of the store, including my direct co-worker, realized how noticeable my absence was. Prior to that injury there was a big impression of what I did not being good enough despite doing more than a lot of other people in grocery, or just being taken advantage of by giving me stupid amounts of work which is what led to the injury in the first place.

I also think it's a fine line between being taken for granted and being taken advantage of sometimes. For me I think the best way to deal with it is to try and take away what you're offering so people realize what they're actually missing/getting, like when I was out for injury. I genuinely think my current job would feel very different if I hadn't taken that injury.