My biggest pet peeve

[aurelemsrealm]

One of my standard responses to this question is, *dry, sarcastic tone and fake smile* "Oh, just enjoying another day in paradise..."

Most people seem to laugh and sympathize. One guy even grinned and asked if I might be lying about that. I just grinned back and chuckled, "Doesn't everyone feel that way about work?" He nodded in agreement and chuckled at that question.

A few, very few usually, don't seem to appreciate it as much for some reason, and will try to make some kind of remark that I should be grateful to have a job, be glad I'm working, or some other blah, blah, blah, nonsense. I usually just dismiss those with a simple, "Yeah, whatever, I don't care about you either."

[DGoddessChardonnay]

"I was doing better, but then I got over it."

That's my stock response to coworkers.

Of course, if a customer asks it's usually "So far so good" and leave it at that.

[Andara Bledin]

I WANT them to ignore my answer because when I say "fine" or "ok", I get "Just fine??" Really? You're gonna argue with my answer?

I don't know that I could resist responding, "Well, I was doing better, but then some guy decided to argue with me over how I was doing and it all started going downhill from there."

Although there are people I don't want to talk to that ask that when I take calls at work, and I love having the opportunity to say I'm swamped. Sometimes they get the hint, too.

^-.-^

[Ghel]

"How are you" is one of those phrases that has, unfortunately, shifted into being predominantly a greeting rather than an honest question. Far too many people see it as equivalent to "hello," and thus don't expect or wait for an answer in return.

Which is just plain silly, and doesn't excuse these people at all.

I feel the same way about "What's up?" or worse, "Sup?" I get confused looks sometimes when I respond to these questions with "Not much. How bout you?"

[Caractacus_Potts]

This one goes both ways. A large number of employees regularly complain about greeting customers with, "Hi! How are you today?" only to be answered with "give me X".

I was almost guilty of this myself the other day when I bought a carton of cigarettes...

CSR: Hi! How are you today?
Me: Carton of Marlboro Red...Oh! Uhmm, I'm fine. Thank you. How are you?

At least I got a smile!

[Kogarashi]

I feel the same way about "What's up?" or worse, "Sup?" I get confused looks sometimes when I respond to these questions with "Not much. How bout you?"

My sister's and my usual reaction to "what's up?" is to point at the ceiling and wait for the other person to get the joke.