Good Morning Makes Me Feel Weird and #OfficePolitics
Good Morning--two seemingly harmless words that when put together appear to be a kind and socially normal morning-time greeting. But, for some reason...I CAN'T say them. If I ever do say them, it's as if I must drag them from my mouth and spit them out. I don't know what it is. This has been an issue since my younger days, and I've tried to analyze this problem, but I've come up with nothing.
What I've created instead is a strange, perhaps off-putting singsong type of "Hiiiiiii" for the morning hours. As morning greetings go, I'm not sure it's appropriate because I get the sense that people don't know what to say back.
It's the same feeling you get when you discover that in America, we don't have a physical greeting between a handshake and a hug. A handshake is for people you've just met, and a hug is for people you know well. What did we do with the people we haven't just met and kind of know? An awkward handshake-hug dance.
I haven't realized the intensity of this Good Morning problem until I came to work in an office. And I work at the front desk. In the morning. It's as if saying "Good Morning" is written in my job description. I cringe inwardly slightly every time I see the elevator door open in the morning because I know that, soon, the horrible "Hiiiii" will soon be exiting my mouth. We will see what I can come up with as the months go on. Perhaps I can get over this. I think it's because, as a child, my mother and camp counselors (during the summer) would sing these Good Morning songs that I hated because they were always sung when it was super early and you had to step out of your bed into the cold. I associate pain and suffering with the words.
Other office greeting issues: I was watching a Seinfeld episode (Seinfeld has taught me almost everything I need to know about life), and one of the characters was discussing the weirdness of during the day office greetings! A true issue--when you pass someone in the hall, do you look? Do you nod? Do you say anything? Do you give some sort of recognition? In this case, I've either whispered an extremely quiet hello that no being could hear or I look away because they're looking away and walk on, putting a sort of guilty grimace on my face. These are the kinds of major problems facing the normal regular American office workers today. In my free time, I try to see if I can't come up with a workable solution to these conundrums.
So, at the office, I am currently battling the law firm library. You'd think it'd be easy right? It's books, on a shelf, that most people do not even use! But, it eludes my brain! I receive updates where I have to remove old pages (in binder books) and add new ones, I receive bills at different times and you have to track the items that came in. I had to go to each person's office to see what books everyone has! It's ridiculous. I have been tasked with the project of creating a document that shows how many copies the office has of one particular book as well as it's unit price. I get frustrated that I feel overwhelmed by a library--one of my favorite things! I'm used to thinking about 850 things at a time in a classroom and now a bunch of books is slowly killing me! Wish me luck as I journey forward into the unbelievably unexciting world of law books and the incredibly more exciting world of #office politics. :)
What I've created instead is a strange, perhaps off-putting singsong type of "Hiiiiiii" for the morning hours. As morning greetings go, I'm not sure it's appropriate because I get the sense that people don't know what to say back.
It's the same feeling you get when you discover that in America, we don't have a physical greeting between a handshake and a hug. A handshake is for people you've just met, and a hug is for people you know well. What did we do with the people we haven't just met and kind of know? An awkward handshake-hug dance.
I haven't realized the intensity of this Good Morning problem until I came to work in an office. And I work at the front desk. In the morning. It's as if saying "Good Morning" is written in my job description. I cringe inwardly slightly every time I see the elevator door open in the morning because I know that, soon, the horrible "Hiiiii" will soon be exiting my mouth. We will see what I can come up with as the months go on. Perhaps I can get over this. I think it's because, as a child, my mother and camp counselors (during the summer) would sing these Good Morning songs that I hated because they were always sung when it was super early and you had to step out of your bed into the cold. I associate pain and suffering with the words.
Other office greeting issues: I was watching a Seinfeld episode (Seinfeld has taught me almost everything I need to know about life), and one of the characters was discussing the weirdness of during the day office greetings! A true issue--when you pass someone in the hall, do you look? Do you nod? Do you say anything? Do you give some sort of recognition? In this case, I've either whispered an extremely quiet hello that no being could hear or I look away because they're looking away and walk on, putting a sort of guilty grimace on my face. These are the kinds of major problems facing the normal regular American office workers today. In my free time, I try to see if I can't come up with a workable solution to these conundrums.
So, at the office, I am currently battling the law firm library. You'd think it'd be easy right? It's books, on a shelf, that most people do not even use! But, it eludes my brain! I receive updates where I have to remove old pages (in binder books) and add new ones, I receive bills at different times and you have to track the items that came in. I had to go to each person's office to see what books everyone has! It's ridiculous. I have been tasked with the project of creating a document that shows how many copies the office has of one particular book as well as it's unit price. I get frustrated that I feel overwhelmed by a library--one of my favorite things! I'm used to thinking about 850 things at a time in a classroom and now a bunch of books is slowly killing me! Wish me luck as I journey forward into the unbelievably unexciting world of law books and the incredibly more exciting world of #office politics. :)
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