Concern or Complaint?

I have a colleague who is probably the sweetest young lady I’ve met and genuinely goes out her way not to cause anyone any trouble. She does exactly what she’s told, when she’s told without question. She reminds me a lot of how I used to be before I discovered first hand how people can take advantage of such a beautiful quality and learned how to say “uh uh, do it yourself”. Anyway, she has a difficult time expressing concerns and how she feels. She would rather go without saying anything than to come off like she’s not appreciative or that she’s complaining which I totally respect. No one likes a complainer. However, she does this at the expense of her own comfort and well-being. Her outlook on this made me wonder where concerns hang up their hat for the day and switch shifts with complaints. Is a concern the distant cousin of complaint or are they identical twins and the only way to tell them apart is a blemish?

Concerns seem to be genuine in nature stemming from some type of apprehension or maybe even an emotional/logical inquiry. They can be traced to a direct incident, emotion, and/or person. They are often acceptable and understandable to people in close quarters or of like-mind. If not tended to and addressed in a timely manner concerns like to throw temper tantrums and mirror complaints just to remind you they are there.

Complaints, they always seem to be unwelcome to me. Unless you are at the “Complaint” department of a retail store. I know I can do without them. They are passive/aggressive, they are expressed without the sincere effort to do something about them. They just want to be heard and reacted to, not really acted on.

I’ll hear out a concern and give it a chance but complaints get no air time with me. Both are similar in origin but I guess it would be safe to say that a complaint is really a concern neglected and gone untreated. An ailment of dissatisfaction. *shrug*