Innocuous things that make you irrationally embarrassed

Tuck the tie back under itself imo. Did this for a wedding on sat, I'm rubbish at tie knots and the fat end always ends up being too long.

Good idea. I had it tucked into my trousers, but it keeps springing loose and you can just imagine that at some point hilarious consequences will ensue.

At my work no fucker acknowledges a held-open door; have occasionally even been glowered at as recipient passes through.

I get the glower from female co-workers occasionally. Also on several occasions have held the door for couples at e.g. a restaurant, to have the woman thank me while the man follows behind her, glowering.

one of the cashiers at the local tesco has seemingly conflated me and another regular customer in her head

The lady who used to cut my hair years ago had me conflated with someone else, too, and on one occasion asked "You like your hair like Christian Slater's, right?"

ha. did you truly appreciate the embarrassing nature of the situation and go along with it?

(i'm now feeling slight embarrassment seeing the pointless 'in her head' in that sentence.)

I wish I did! I get too nervous in situations like that; I pretty much just stammered "No, that's not me" or something like that. Also, she was pretty bad at cutting hair so I'm not sure that I would have wanted her to make me look like Christian Slater.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City speaking Spanish

spiralli otm -- I kind of wanted to die when the Wendy's drive-thru cashier said 'Hi!' in a manner that signified that she now recognized me

shame spiral in 3 2 1

Someone on my fb recently posted about running into an acquaintance over and over again on different aisles at the grocery store. Or there's also when you run into an acquaintance you don't really like talking to over and over at the same place and you have to do the whole "yep. we're both here again" thing.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City speaking Spanish

― Josefa, Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM

Kraftwerk's Technopop

When I was a kid, the only reason I started referring to my step dad as ” dad” was because I couldn't bring myself to say his name (lex). For whatever reason, I just found the idea of saying it aloud utterly mortifying.

I spent about 2 years calling him ” you”, before I realized ” dad” was a little less awkward.

Kraftwerk's Technopop

― ledge, Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:41 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Why? It's like the others..

except for lack of catchy tunes, high quotient of dated samples, Ralf singing about his sex life.

I dunno, the kids were going "boom -TCHACK!!" for weeks afterwards...

It's an embarrassing album for sure but it's embarrassing in all the best ways

When I was younger, I used to get so embarassed for people on television shows who were about to get in trouble. I can't think of any concrete examples, but like, if the Fresh Prince was doing something he wasn't supposed to, like snooping in someone else's stuff or something, and we in the audience were clued in to the fact that he was about to get busted for it. I would get beet-red flushed to the point where I'd have to turn off the TV or leave the room.

I know the feeling and to be honest this is why I really find it difficult to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm sometimes, it's one of those shows that makes me physically uncomfortable, I can't stop thinking "just drop it, Larry!" over and over again. Which sucks because I know how damn funny it is.

Yeah I can't do it either. It's just not funny for me, I start blushing and having hot flushes of embarrassment, like my scalp prickles and it's physically uncomfortable! Oh cringing.

on the other hand I'm not sure why Louie doesn't invoke the same feeling

i was in C0st Plu$ last night, as always during the holidays there was a long line for the cashiers. An employee was standing at the head of the line with a plate of samples (white cheddar cheese puffs), telling people when the next cashier was available. But she was kinda in that panic mode where she's pretending to be super-friendly but her voice is kinda shrill and panicky like she's moments away from throwing the sample tray to the floor and storming out.

I'd never EVER seen them handing out samples so that was kinda weird and secondhand embarrassing to begin with, because I think most of the other people in line were all, 'why are you here'. Like we can all see the next available cashier, it's fine.

But on top of smiling in a rictus of panick and saying 'go ahead, the cashier's open now!' she insisted on greeting everyone who walked in the door as well. Which again, never happens in this store. it's just a walk in and shop place, employees say hello if they see you but they don't usually greet you when you walk in. The door was a good 20 feet away from where she was standing at the cashier line. So she'd randomly, panic-ily shout a 'HELLO HOW ARE YOU!!!' - and they'd kinda look around like startled deer becuase they couldn't even *see* her from where they were standing. God it was awkward to watch.

I wanted to simultaneously hug her and die of embarrassment for her.

that's not irrational embarrassment -- that's old fashioned empathy!

Greeting people is a commonly used loss prevention technique. They probably had been getting knocked over and LP told them that they had to greet "every single person who comes in the door" or face getting written up or something. In my experience, the greeter comes off as totally awkward and robotic and real shoplifters don't give a shit.

well it didn't really make me IA so I figured this was as good a place as any :)

xpost but I got the feeling she had just came up with the greeting people thing on the fly to fill in the awkwardness of her role to begin with. OR the store just went completely bonkers over Christmas and gave her this stupid new policy to follow which is just as embarrassing for her

it's like the time our vp of sales came back from Seattle after visiting Pike's Market and decided that every time someone took a phone order they should yell 'order up'. I died of embarrassment for everyone who yelled it. It lasted maybe a week before everyone just quietly stopped doing it.

i'm not trying to censor you -- just noticing. pretty much nothing makes me IA, but i would only use this thread for things i am embarrassed about for a completely irrational reason
otherwise i would just post post post post post about moments of empathy all day
and that would be tedious for everyone

Greeting people is a commonly used loss prevention technique. They probably had been getting knocked over and LP told them that they had to greet "every single person who comes in the door" or face getting written up or something. In my experience, the greeter comes off as totally awkward and robotic and real shoplifters don't give a shit.

Yeah this is the worst. The obv. "we don't trust our customers" meshed with fake friendliness makes me IA.

Also being asked "Can I help you find something today?" 5x or more within a couple of minutes of hsving set foot in the place

i've been that guy so i feel a mix of empathy and hatred at the business for bringing ppl so low

Exactly. It distorts the humanity of both the employees and the people shopping there

one thing that sticks in my memory w/r/t this dates from when i briefly worked at this particular central fl bl0ckbust3r that was managed by a dude who was the type of gay that occurs in repressive environments like the south but are also so incredibly stupid and inertia-prone that they remain closeted their entire lives. this dude would be in the back of the store and would bellow "he-LLO!!!" in the most stereotypical richard simmons voice you can imagine. when this happened i would usually be at the front of the store and had already said hello to the person entering like a regular human being out of earshot.

not innocuous at all rly, fuck companies that have "greeters," fuck customer service forever

i was gonna say, that anger is totally righteous and justified

been there too btw

Is anybody else slightly uncomfortable putting down a tip, embarassed if the recipient sees you doing it, and downright mortified if they call out thanks?

yeah i feel that, but you should do it visibly anyway. once a bartender/barista at a bar/cafe in nyc got mad at me because i discreetly put his tip in the jar when he wasn't looking instead of in front of him after he gave me my change and he thought i had snubbed him. well, not "mad", he sort of made this facial expression that i took to mean "un. be. liev. a. ble." then i actually explained to him that i had put two dollars in the jar and that made me feel like the biggest idiot in the world.

Is this a UK thing? You tip openly here, it's better if they do see you, avoids any unpleasantness.

well, in my situation i paid at the register because i just got coffee but the server was also serving alcohol and so i guess in his mind he was a bartender who expects everyone, without fail to tip him. i tip baristas anyway, every time -- i used to be one -- but i usually don't make a big show of slipping some money into the jar.

well, i got coffee and some sort of snack. (full disclosure).

also maybe sometimes at starbucks i don't tip baristas when i use my debit card and don't have cash. (fuller disclosure).

tell us more about your tipping habits

When I was a kid, the only reason I started referring to my step dad as ” dad” was because I couldn't bring myself to say his name (lex). For whatever reason, I just found the idea of saying it aloud utterly mortifying.

I spent about 2 years calling him ” you”, before I realized ” dad” was a little less awkward.

― just1n3, Thursday, 13 December 2012 07:49 (7 hours ago) Bookmark

I am imagining a hilarious sitcom where the lex is your stepdad and has to cook you dinners and help you with your homework on the computer

Also: we had to do this thing called a ”mihi” at school (it's a Maori thing, you introduce yourself and list your parents, place of birth, etc.), and I would use some totally ordinary name like ” john” instead of ”lex”, that's how embarrassing I found it.

yeah i feel that, but you should do it visibly anyway. once a bartender/barista at a bar/cafe in nyc got mad at me because i discreetly put his tip in the jar when he wasn't looking instead of in front of him after he gave me my change and he thought i had snubbed him. well, not "mad", he sort of made this facial expression that i took to mean "un. be. liev. a. ble." then i actually explained to him that i had put two dollars in the jar and that made me feel like the biggest idiot in the world.

― return to the 36 yellowistic chambers (Pat Finn), Thursday, 13 December 2012 22:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWjtDhGQFg

i used to get embarrassed when my dad would ramble on and never listen to the person trying to talk to him but now i don't care. i'm just glad he's still alive so i just watch him and smile. its like watching a big demented baby talk to people. who is hard of hearing. and who listens to jazz all day long and reads the wall street journal. okay, that's a really weird baby...

yesss

it is very embarrassing to have to wear something for work that isn't obviously job-related. casual acquaintances come in and say "oh hey, what's up?" and you either say instantly "i'm just wearing this visor for work because i have to it's not mine" or imagine them walking out thinking "so she's the visor type. huh."

are you a bookie?

bank teller

pro golfer maybe?

Bartleby the scrivener?

Welder?