In recent times my department was put beside another department, and so the equilibrium was a bit disturbed. My department is basically quiet and morose, and there's is basically unseasonably excitable and well, noisy. And they are all female as well.
Mostly I don't mind, and they are all nice people. But they all have one thing in common, one thing that frustrates me and brings unnecessary stress to the situation.
They are all perpetrators of The Delayed Hello. Now, The Delayed Hello is something that does not even need to exist, a silly thing that has come in to being by pure carelessness and a lack of foresight past the current moment.
Let me outline the right way to behave, the antithesis, so you can then better understand the wrong way. You walk into work, it's pretty open planned, and there are several people already at their desks in the vicinity of your desk. 'Good morning' you say, and let your gaze go briefly to every face. Quick, painless, done. In some cases you now may not have to even utter a word to some of these people for the rest of the day, until you say 'Bye everyone' as you leave. So simple, so straightforward.
Unless you go the foolish Delayed Hello route. You walk in to work, and go straight to your desk, and then start a conversation with your close pals who sit right beside you. The conversation can quickly blow out to many minutes as you discuss each others clothing choices of the day, what lovely fabric they are made from, how well those shoes go with said fabric, how annoying your hair has been this morning.
And now through carelessness, the rest of the room is placed in an awkward position, where they have to try and work in a 'hello' at some point through the day without it seeming weird and out of place. You have to casually try to meet their eye as they pass you in the kitchen, or on the way to the photocopier.
Why stress, I hear you ask. If they didn't give you a hello first thing, it's their prerogative to try and work it in somewhere. Well sure, but will they bother? No. And then your left at the end of the day to say goodbye to people you never said hello to, which frankly, disaligns the entire universe.
The Delayed Hello. Do you do it?
Don't.
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
5 comments:
And don't anyone make a snide comment about 'disailgns' not being a word, because it totally is.
i work with delayed hello-ers every day. it's painful. loud and proud is the only way.
What if you ignored them when you said goodbye, too? The un-goodbye would cancel out the missing hello.
My guilt complex is too powerful. I'd feel bad about it.
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um, hi.
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