The self-centred habits of severely annoying people

Are you one of those people who think the rules don't apply to you? Stop being so damn entitled, says Sabine Jones

At a recent public outdoor gathering, everyone was asked to stand back, behind a cordon, to allow a hospital helicopter to land. We could watch from a distance, the announcer told us over the PA system.

The guy next to me immediately said to his wife, "I'm going to get closer to take some photos."

"They've just asked everyone to stand behind the cordon," his wife pointed out.

"Oh, they'll make an exception for me," said the guy, whom I assumed to be a doctor or a local celebrity or maybe some sort of minor royalty.

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But they didn't, and he came back visibly annoyed.

As it turned out, he wasn't special in any way. He was just an exception person.

We all know, or at least know of, exception people. They're the ones who nose in right at the front of the long, slow-moving queue during peak-hour traffic, because why should they wait in line?

They're the ones who have lively phone conversations in cinemas, who let their kids run wild in restaurants, who feel nothing about paying for their full month's groceries at the "15 items or less" check-out, who park in disabled parking bays or on double yellow lines.

They're the ones who feel that they don't have to follow the rules like everyone else, because they are, you know, them.

And this isn't just entitlement - the expectation that things will be given unto you just because you are you, regardless of how unrealistic your desire may be.

In an age of entitlement, being an exception person goes considerably further.

It goes all the way to knowing what a certain rule is - whether it's an unwritten norm such as not having a loud personal cellphone conversation in a public space, or a clearly written instruction such as "one per customer" - and thinking that not only does it not apply to you, but that everyone else should fully accept that it doesn't apply to you.

Exception people are incapable of envisaging the awfulness of a world full of people just like them because, in their inward-looking minds, the rules (whatever they may be) should be bent only for them; everyone else should and must, of course, fully comply.

The drought has brought out exception people like nobody's business - and I use that term specifically because they truly do believe it's nobody's business how much of our ever-dwindling drinking water they lavish on their gardens.

"It's only my garden!" whined one exception person when she was berated for doing this.

"But what if everyone thought that?" someone asked.

"But it is only my garden," the exception person insisted, displaying that diagnostic combination of exception-person character traits: astounding lack of self-awareness plus lashings of blatant shamelessness.

block_quotes_start By the time we got back to our hotel, the kitchen was closed. 'Couldn't you just rustle up something?' the exception person asked block_quotes_end

I once attended a two-day conference with an exception person. The first day stretched well into the evening, and by the time we got back to our hotel, the kitchen was closed.

"But couldn't someone just rustle up something small for us? A little hamburger or a steak or something?" the exception person asked the receptionist, who politely repeated that the kitchen was closed and the chef had left for the night.

My attempts at persuading him that we wouldn't starve before morning were completely ignored.

Instead, to my utter horror, he said to the receptionist, "Our company does a lot of business with this hotel group, you know."

I glanced at him in astonishment: he was actually trying to blackmail the receptionist into doing what he wanted.

The receptionist gave the exception person an unfathomable look, then said, "OK, sir. I'll arrange to have something delivered to your room."

I declined to share this specially prepared late-night meal, and as a result, I was in the dining room early the next morning, ready to start the day with a generous serving of the hotel's buffet breakfast.

And I can't say I was too surprised when my phone beeped with a text from my colleague: "Won't be able to come to conference today. Seem to have picked up tummy bug."

Sure. That's what it was. A tummy bug.