Not A Blog™

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I‘ve noticed that a large number (all) of these situations are in an office or business setting. I didn’t want this to be a commentary on office life, a la Dilbert, but it’s starting to look like that. I’m probably going to change a few that did happen at work to some other venue just to mix it up a bit. That being said, I know why this happens. It happens because most—by far—of my social interactions happen at the office, where I have no choice in dealing with people. Despite what anyone might think, I rarely go and hang out more than once a week, and I’m only doing the once-a-week thing over the summer since some friends are back in the area. Other times of the year, I’ve gone a month or more not meeting anyone outside of the workplace, hence all these situations are set in that environ, though they’re not necessarily about the job, as in this example.

Although the reaction in the final panel is a tad exaggerated and the dialogue is fictitious, I actually have done this to people. I ask how things are going. They respond in a manner which doesn’t make sense. I stupidly wait for them to actually answer the question—which doesn’t happen—so then I ask the question again exactly the same way I did before except this time I get a response.

It only took twenty one years, but I was able to finally figure out the answer as to why this happens. The first time you ask someone how they’re doing, it’s not a request for information, but rather a greeting. The “Hi” part of the greeting is only a lead-in, not the greeting itself. This confused me for quite some time. It still does, though not as often.

The problem stems from the fact that when I ask, “how are things going?” or “how are you doing?” or some variation thereof, I actually want to know. If I didn’t care about you or how you were doing, I wouldn’t ask. I’d just stop at the “Hi”. Everyone else asks each other this question all the time, though, so to their brains, it represents a meaningless pleasantry. They don’t bother answering each other. Then when I show up, I get all frustrated that people seem to be ignoring me.

-Pulsar