Surviving Fort Mac - Paid Prison

With the position that I am in up here, I hear a lot of complaints. One of my tasks is to attend camp committee meetings which are several hour bitch sessions. A lot of complaints from craft also work their ways up through their foreman to their supers, to me. I am in a project controls position, particularly interface coordination. This means that any problem people have that relates to camp, busing, other contractors, I get to hear about it.

For the most part a lot of these complaints are due to an over-inflated sense of entitlement people have. Seriously some of the things that people complain about are without any thought for the greater good, or reason or perspective. An example of this is people swap shower heads to get better showers. This is a 5000 person camp that requires all it's water to be trucked in, so the reason for the low flow heads is simple resource management. More to the point I hear about everything. The bus was a minute late, the steak is crappy. Now this isn't to say that all the items that are raised aren't genuine concerns, some are.

I was thinking about this though and the things that appear to bug a lot of people, are things that I never even think about. It just never registers to me. I was thinking about why this is and the conclusion that I have come to is that I have no sense of entitlement when I am up here. I essentially think of this place as a paid prison. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, I do but my mentality is this...
If the food is shitty, happy to be eating and that I didn't have to cook it, or clean it.
If the bus is late, I am happy there is another one that comes later that gets us to camp
The bed sucks, I at least have a bed to sleep in
The shower sucks, the water was hot enough and I am clean
The laundry machines are full often, at least I can do my laundry
The gym is busy, at least there is a gym
The flight is sitting in Edmonton for a few hours, at least I am going home.

Hell I am allowed to be in a supervisor's room, but I request a craft room because I don't care if my prison room has a slightly larger bed and better walls. Some people care immensely so let them have it instead.

Anyway back to work, but that is my thought on the manner.