Elevators Are Awkward
At work, people range from being my friends, to being acquaintances, to face recognition, to total strangers.
If they are my friends I of course have no problems chit chatting with them while I wait for the elevator.
If they are people of only face recognition or total strangers, I have no responsibility to chit chat with them and they appear to feel the same way.
It’s those acquaintances that make it really awkward. At quitting time the other day this acquaintance pops up at a long elevator wait. Now I’ve had many many conversations with this acquaintance before but they’re just an acquaintance. The problem is that we’ve had so many conversations before that a 0 chit chat zone made it feel really ackward. Luckily at the last minute before full awkwardness I ask the person if they would be travelling in the near future. Thank god that person had a full slate of traveling in their new future and it became something we could easily talk about as the elevator arrived.
It’s not that I don’t want to talk to people but if you don’t talk to them on a regular basis, how do you find something common to chit chat about?
The only guaranteed subject is talking about the weather in Texas. Since it’s always changing there’s always some cliche remark you can make about it.
One of the worst times when I did a chit chat panic is when I told this person I heard the freshest fish arrives on Monday. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. For some reason in the midst of forced chit chat I remembered some guy told me most resaturants get their shipment of fish on Monday and I was about to go grocery shopping for fish. Bluh!
Uncategorized | tdo | 
March 5, 2010
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