Why is it that every time we happen to pass each other on the way to the printers, or while searching for files, or any time at all that you happen to see me, you feel the need to greet me as if we didn't say "Hello" when we first got here in the morning?
Shouldn't that one greeting be enough to last us the whole day?
Sure, you've been in your cube across the room and I've been in mine and we haven't spoken for ninety minutes, but we both know that we're here. So why react as if one of us is just arriving several times a day?
And, seriously, a greeting after your or my lunch break is also unnecessary. It's a break that's mandated by the union. We both know we're coming back in an hour, tops, so why treat it as if one of us has been on vacation for a week?
Is it because you need some stimulus, other than ocular, to be convinced that I'm really here? You're too far away to touch me and hopefully you can't smell me and we're not in the kind of relationship where you should be tasting me, so I suppose you'd have to use your ears to back up what your eyes see. Do you often have problems seeing people who aren't really there? Do those people you see not respond when you greet them? If so, they phone number you should call is (718) 555-2368. I don't know if they travel outside of New York, but it's worth a shot.
Maybe you're afraid that I'll think you're rude if you don't greet me every time you see me. I won't. I promise. Do you think I'm rude when I just smile and nod when I see you the second through twelfth time in a day? Give me a smile. Nod a little. That's all the acknowledgement that I need. I trust my eyes to give me decent information, so I don't need you to reaffirm that you really are in the room.
You should trust your eyes, too.
Thanks.
9 comments:
And maybe they're just glad to be out of their little cubby hole and happy to see your smiling face.
Yes, at work we say hello repeatedly to each other in passing. Sometimes it leads to interesting conversations. Or not.
Maybe they are trying to get you to talk. I was one of those people that almost had whole conversations with people just passing them. Or maybe they were more like one-liners like, "That popcorn smell is giving me brain damage!" or "Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" I never really thought about it, I just always said stuff. I'm goofy like that. I even feel the need to entertain the cashiers at the grocery store.
Not once has the second, third, or seventh greeting in the day been followed by conversation. It's only been followed by the person moving by me to get to where he or she is going. Nothing odd, like the popcorn comment, is ever said. They only say the usual "Hello" or "Good morning" or "Good Afternoon" or "How are you?" never anything more interesting than that.
I swear, it's like they don't trust their eyesight that another person is in the room. That, or they think I'm going to spill my life story on them because they said, "Hello."
Oh Ticknart. This is why I love you so!
Not my curiosity?
Arrgghh - I hate that, too. And every Friday when everyone has to share their plans for the weekend and every Monday we everyone has to share what they did on the weekend. Sometimes I actually don't want to come in on Mondays just because I didn't do anything on the weekend I want to talk about
Glad to know that I'm not the only person who can't stand this sort of thing.
And I get the Monday thing, too. I don't do anything on weekends, so trying to come up with new evasions has gotten harder and harder. I still try, though.
I think you ought to tell them what you did on your weekend.
"Well, Saturday I got up and took a shit, then got breakfast and watched TV.
Sunday I got up, took another shit, ate breakfast and watchd TV. Then for something different, I went to the laundromat, watched the clothes go round and round in the drier and went to the grocery store."
Well, usually I shit after breakfast, but I get your point.
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