The busy bees

I'm busy but I hate to admit that. When people ask me "How's work?" I usually reply with an "Alright" or "Pretty good" etc.  Never a "Gosh! I'm so busy I can't breathe" even when that is true. I find it amusing that some people get a lot of mileage from ranting about how busy their work is, how hard their boss is making them work or how their colleagues are slacking off while they themselves are slaving away. I find it amusing because when I'm busy it is usually because I have chosen to be busy either because I want a promotion (or some such concrete end goal in mind) or because hard work actually *gasp* makes me happy and makes me feel like I deserve my dinner that evening. So why do some people crib about their busy lives?