Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

Fine. Perhaps "some" cashiers care, in which case, it's not fake. And those who don't aren't being "fake" either because the vast majority of them are just making friendly noises. It's too bad that coo-ing didn't catch on as a substitute for "How are you?" so that a passing space cadet, Andy Rooney, and my dad wouldn't have to be faced with that affront.

woah.

Wow. Sorry. I apologize. I got irrationally angry!!!

There you have it: proof that that complaint does, in fact, make me irrationally angry.

Have a nice day.

Asking me would I like a drink with my order before I can finish the food part. I told her today to let me finish and then I'll answer that question.

Oh man, I want to give space cadet a big hug now.

I apologize for going off. I'm unreasonably irritable today. That stand against "how are you" is a pet peeve, but I channeled all my other anger into the minor irritation it causes me. I'm sorry.

My cashier usually asks, Did you find everything okay?

To which I say yes, and then we stand there silently as she scans up the groceries and I watch the price screen. I think we're both satisfied with our social interaction.

Once there was this little punk who was like Christopher Walken Jr. He's giving me this weird look and I kinda return it right back to him.

"Weren't you in here a few hours ago?" he asks.
"Nope, wasn't me." I reply.

He scans a few more items and then says, "Well, he looked exactly like you."
"Must've been a handsome dude!" I say.

He completely stops everything and looks at me. "I wouldn't know anything about that." Then all of a sudden, the lightbulb comes on. "… but, I see where you would think that!"

I hate talking to this cashier, I think to myself.

I don't get angry about it necessarily, but here's an example of uncomfortable gratuitous interaction that annoys me.

I ride a commuter bus from Annapolis to DC to get to work every day. The bus holds 55 passengers and is almost always full. Upon boarding the bus, it's traditional to greet the driver with a "hi", "good morning", etc. Whenever you exit the bus, it's sort of expected to say "Thank you".

I just feel like that poor guy sitting there saying "you're welcome" 55 times in a row, he probably doesn't give a shit! He's said "you're welcome" 300 times this week. He knows that you're happy that he got you there on time and in one piece. He probably just wants us all to get off the bus so he can hurry on over to the bus depot, jump in his car and go home.

But then, if I don't say "thank you", I feel like I'm being gruff and standoffish. "What's with that weird guy who doesn't say 'thank you'? Creep."

xp lol pleasant plains.

I just feel like that poor guy sitting there saying "you're welcome" 55 times in a row, he probably doesn't give a shit! He's said "you're welcome" 300 times this week. He knows that you're happy that he got you there on time and in one piece. He probably just wants us all to get off the bus so he can hurry on over to the bus depot, jump in his car and go home

I have thought the same thing many many times. I still say thank you though.

Our office receptionist sits right in front of our door. Everyone that works here walks past her. Do we all need to say good day to her? I wouldn't mind, but I also think about her having to say hello to 75 people within the course of an hour, all the while trying to do her work. I would flip if 75 people walked past my desk and said HOWYA DOIN, PP?

BUT I feel if I don't extend some salutations, then I'm being rude. So now I let her take the lead, meaning I'm usually saying good morning while facing the other direction down the hall.

This is why i avoid leaving the house if at all possible

I do not speak to our building's concierge. I think he has tried to say "goodnight" or something to me a few times and I have ignored him. I guess I'm being rude to him, but he really does nothing for me. We don't interact otherwise.

I do say hi to the security guards though.

The only guys like that I will flat-out ignore without guilt are the BestBuy Rottweilers manning the security booth by the door. I'll talk to the Walmart greeter ten thousand times before the BestBuy guy even gets a head nod from me.

I've been in the receptionist by the front door position and I think it's safe to err on the side of friendly politeness. I think that's always a safe bet, actually.

People in offices can tend to treat administrative people like total inhuman shit, so saying hi and acknowledging the receptionist's humanity is always AGL, IMO.

Plus of the receptionist or bus driver doesn't want to say hello in response, she can just ignore you.

Speaking from the POV of a customer service worker, it's not a big deal to have to say hello or you're welcome or to smile 300 times a day. It's just the job.

I was about to say "the smile is part of the uniform," when I realized that that was one of those obnoxious corporate slogans. But when it's not being used as a cudgel by a dillweed manager, it makes sense.

I think I would be happier having to say "good morning" or "hi" 300x/day than having people act like I'm invisible.

I have probably vented about this before but "Are you finding everything OK?" throws my partner into a total headspin. He stands there with his brain gears crunching trying to work out if they mean 'have you physically found the items on your shopping list', which may make some sense in Whole Foods (although halfway through doing the shopping, we don't know!) but less so in, like, H&M. - or does it mean 'does the shopping experience in this store reach your standards' which also throws him, because, then he has to evaluate the experience of wandering around the aisles. He tends to take things very literally and after two years of being here has just about learned to smile and say 'yes thanks'. Apart from in Whole Foods at the checkout where they say 'did you find what you were looking for?' and they were out of something so he says 'no....' and then it's not like they're making a note of which items they were out of, so they just kind of smile and nod at each other.

Off-thread slightly, but re Whole Foods: does anyone know if it's their policy for their staff to never say 'no', or something? This past week I've noticed that I don't remember them ever saying this, which led to a bit of a weird interaction about where to pay. Like if you ask if they have any leeks, they will say 'we're out of leeks right now but we'll have them tomorrow', or similar, not 'no, sorry'.

"do you like to eat poo?"

Dangerous information you've just given me.

It could just be the super-polite staff at my local one, but yeah I should test this...

Is "how are you?" a standard part of the supermarket cashier script in the US? Here in the UK I go to the same supermarket 5 times a week and get "how are you" maybe once every 3 months, so it's still uncommon enough to be thrown by it. I have no problem with thanking people or saying "you too" if I'm wished a good day or whatever, and if I actually recognise the cashier I'm happy to give a fuller answer, but I do find it a bit odd to be reeled off to a stranger as if on a script.

Anyhow, next time it happens (which, as I said, may not be for a few months) I'll try to make more of an effort to be polite.

And I probably shouldn't have used this thread, because although I tried to say that it only makes me irrationally momentarily confused and not irrationally angry, I guess I didn't spell out the off-topic-ness sufficiently. I looked for a supermarket thread but none of them seemed quite right, so I just came here.

s "how are you?" a standard part of the supermarket cashier script in the US? Here in the UK I go to the same supermarket 5 times a week and get "how are you" maybe once every 3 months, so it's still uncommon enough to be thrown by it.

I get it all the time in my local Sainsbury's, and as for Pret a Manger, I don't know what kind of cultish training they go through but it does seem as though they really want to be my best friend.

"How are you?" is normal in the U.S. Actually, it's probably closer to say it's the bare minimum in greetings at a store. I won't be surprised if one of these days I get a hug at Trader Joe's.

HINT: They also do not care if you HAVE A NICE DAY.

Perhaps not, but when they say, "Have a good one," it makes me want to punch them.

"How are you" is def synonymous with "Hello I acknowledge your existence but do not wish you to divulge any information about how you actually are" in the US in all contexts.

Sometimes I'll great coworkers with a "Hey howzit goin" and think to myself "Why are you asking that? You don't care!!!"

My favorite is when someone says "hello! Lovely weather, isn't it?" and the other person says, "Fine, thanks. You?" I imagine a mental drudge siren in the respondent's brain send out "WARNING WARNING OFF SCRIPT ABORT" error messages.

xp also LOL

i don't understand how people who get mad about people saying "how are you" as just a standard turn of phrase exist in this world without dropping dead from a coronary every day. i guess that's kind of the point of this thread.

Re TJ, it might actually a policy. It is definitely my habit to avoid "no" "can't" "we're out of ____" and most directly negative words at work (I'm a legal assistant now; most of my jobs prior to this one have been customer service related), and to offer an alternative. If done right, it doesn't sound affected, and it goes down easier than a plain denial. I really hate when I ask a store worker something like, "do you have this shirt in Large?" and they just say, "No, sorry." That is a door shutting in my face and it makes me not want to continue shopping.

Hi I wasn't mad! And I'm quite happy for it to be a standard turn of phrase at the office, and actually I'd probably rather hear an honest answer from the teenager in the shop who I'd never seen before than from some of my coworkers, especially the one who will complain for ten minutes about how tired she is and maybe she's getting the flu as soon as she gets in, every single day.

(And yes, someone will berate me for that next, so if she genuinely feels exhausted to the point of illness every day, then that does suck and I should feel sorry for her. If, on the other hand, she is exactly as tired as everyone else who had to get up for work, maybe she should just get a coffee and keep quiet until it kicks in.)

My ladyboss is overall averagely cheery, but every morning when she comes in and I say, "Hi, how are you?" She says, "Oh I'm here." It would be interesting to count how many times she's said that.

Back to things that make me IA: The firm's email domain name changed last week, and today my dudeboss emailed me "when I come in tomorrow, please change my laptop so it shows I am sending from the new email address. my emails from the iphone and the office computer come from the new address but not the laptop." He sent that email from his laptop (Outlook web access), and it said "From: [new address]" because how could it be otherwise.

It took a lot of emails before he told me that if he sends himself an email, it goes TO the former address, and then forwards to the new one. He had been relying on the auto-complete as his address book. He hadn't even been emailing himself at the *former* address, but the one prior to that, which we stopped using in late 2009.

two new ones...

friends iming me just as i'm about to log off and leave work.

and

oh jesus god this one

PEOPLE WHO FUCKING CYCLE ON THE FOOTPATH.

when a person sits next to me on the tube and then they are looking at me why are they looking at me? they have to turn their head almost 90 degrees to do this. i dont mind if a different person looks at me, i might be in their natural line of view thats ok but not the man sitting next to me stop looking you're making me agitated

lol

are their heads facing forward? some ppl have a thing abt facing forward

I started thinking about the 'not saying no' thing after this exchange at Whole Foods, on the new 'sandwich' counter which also has a 5-items sign and to which I've been directed several times by their employees. I'd asked if they had any basil (BAZZIL), they said 'we're out of... bayzil... right now' so I paid and left, then noticed outside a whole stack of herbs in pots including basil. Picked one up and went back in to pay at the small sandwich counter - where there were literally 7 staff behind it - because there are queues everywhere else.
Me: Can I pay for this here?
Them: Oh, you can take that upfront.
Me: (not sure if they'd heard as they were far away): Can I pay for this here?
Them: You can pay for that upfront.
I'm still not sure what they're saying, as this is technically the register nearest the front and I'm wondering if there's a language breakdown where I'm not understanding what 'upfront' means.
Me: so can I pay for this here, yes or no?
Them: er.... no

lol

are their heads facing forward? some ppl have a thing abt facing forward

― zvookster, Tuesday, September 27, 2011

everyone else seems to be ok with facing forwards but once every couple of weeks i get a person who wants to look at the side of my head at close range. i could understand looking at an angle across the carriage towards someone not directly ahead but these clowns have their heads at a 75 degree angle. ive had two of these deficients in the last two days, the one yesterday also had his arm outstretched and was leaning in..we looked like those couple with the hyper-possessive male keeping tabs on his precious little cherry blossom

it was so ridiculuous i turned my head to the 75 degree angle as well so we were almost but not quite looking into each others eyes. i thought he would think this was weird and change to a more acceptable position in response. he didnt...the people opposite seemed to enjoy it though

i look at people sometimes, i'm curious to see who i'm sitting beside.

another one...i fucking hate people who use facebook to air their political views, i mean like, non stop. even if i agree i just find it so pathetic and lame.

they are looking for the whole journey

sometimes i'm curious to see who i'm sitting beside for the whole journey

This seems like an appropriate place to share a story:

I was in the Bay Area on my honeymoon last week, and my wife and I were on BART to visit a friend in Oakland. The train is crowded, so I'm just standing up and casually looking around the car while my wife reads her Kindle. At one point I meet eyes for a second with a woman a few seats away. She is looking straight ahead at me, very intently, but I don't think anything of it, I just keep looking around.

As we approach the next stop, the woman walks up to me and says, "You're married, right?" While I'm momentarily dumbfounded at how she knows (I've been married a week, so I don't remember that I'm wearing a big old ring that broadcasts my marital status to anyone within sight of my left hand), she continues: "You need to focus on your wife. I saw you staring at me, looking at me up and down, undressing me with your eyes. Don't try to pretend you weren't." Astonished, I attempt to defend myself, saying I glanced at her for no more than a second or two while looking around the train. (Like, I'm sure I stared at the disheveled paraplegic by the door a whole lot longer than I ever looked at this woman.) She isn't having any of it. She keeps repeating, loudly, that I need to focus on my wife. So I persist as well, claiming innocence and noting her sheer presumptuousness.

Of course, this riles up other riders on the train, some of whom say "Dude, just let it go!" And I don't know whether this means "It's no use arguing with a crazy woman" or "It's no use trying to defend yourself, when you've been so devastatingly called out." So now I'm horrified at the thought that the entire train thinks I'm this disgusting lecher who's ogling other women on my honeymoon, while my wife is standing right next to me (not that anyone would know that I was on my honeymoon -- or for that matter, that the woman next to me is my wife). And my wife is trying to get me to back off, too, at one point forcefully kissing me just to shut me up. Eventually the train arrives at the station, and the woman walks out, all the while claiming that her boyfriend is going to whip my ass or some such thing. I was still pretty much shaken until I got off the train myself.

So you know: Be careful where you're lookin', fellas.

I've had at least 3 dozen women tell me this about you jaymc.

Give me that woman's contact info. I am in a unique position to set her straight.

Just a second ... I need to pull it up on my BlackBerry.

If it's any consolation, everyone I know who moves here has tales to tell about crazy BART people within a week or two...

I think my response to such a woman would have been a very loud "would you mind your own business, you egostistical COW?"

"Weren't you in here a few hours ago?" he asks.
"Nope, wasn't me." I reply.

He scans a few more items and then says, "Well, he looked exactly like you."
"Must've been a handsome dude!" I say.

He completely stops everything and looks at me. "I wouldn't know anything about that." Then all of a sudden, the lightbulb comes on. "… but, I see where you would think that!"

I hate talking to this cashier, I think to myself.

― Pleasant Plains, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 11:42 AM (8 hours ago)

I don't get it. Was he so strung out about possibly referring to another man as handsome? I try to joke with the cashiers at Whole Foods sometimes and it is almost always an unqualified failure because they're SO FUCKING STUPID

Yes, he was that strung out.

Having to change the date in the search results on ALL our websites to the US format. We are a UK company, but trying to make it big over there so what they say goes.