Don't try to joke with guest

[Desk clerk knows all]

This lady comes to the front desk and says her coffee maker keeps popping the circuit breaker in her room. I apologize and tell her I'll send maintenance to check it then I jokingly say "you must be making strong coffee". She gives me a sour face and says , "well we do like it strong, I put two filters of coffee in, but that should make the circuit pop."

[Peppergirl]

Humorless people are the bane of my existence.

[sms001]

For what it's worth, Desk, I liked your joke.

[bhskittykatt]

I hate boring people. (The SC, not you. You made a witty joke!)

[Pixilated]

Would be interesting to know whether she got back to her room and suddenly thought, "OMG, that person was JOKING" and promptly felt like an idiot. I've done that on occasion.

If not, she does need to lighten up a bit. It's just a coffee-maker!

[Aethian]

Or maybe she doesn't know it's a joke till after she gets said coffee into her?

[csquared]

Sign them up.

[Mr Hero]

Why so serious?

[hinakiba777]

Humourless people are the worst. The ironically I have a friend where neither of us gets when the other is joking, so we get angry and confused at each other. Our mutual friends find this beyond amusing.

Also regarding strong coffee my mother once said the following.

I hate strong coffee, it's too strong.

[RealUnimportant]

Or maybe she doesn't know it's a joke till after she gets said coffee into her?

I was just thinking that; perhaps her sense of humour needs a caffeine boost.

I wonder if it IS possible to overload a coffeemaker by putting too much coffee in it?

[PepperElf]

heh. no. otherwise i'd have popped a lot more than i have.

i'm thinking she was running other stuff at the same time from that outlet, or on the same circuit at least. like a hairdryer or something like that.

either that or the stuff's just old and cranky

[Lyse]

I have to confess to being this person on occasion. I get annoyed/frustrated because something is going wrong, go for assistance and am just flat and humorless and don't realize until later that the person was joking or teasing me. For what it's worth, I always feel like an ass afterwards when my mental equilibrium is restored.

[Hyndis]

I tend to have a dry yet geeky sense of humor, but I never, ever use it with a customer.

Reason being is that if I use it on the wrong person, and they don't understand it, they'll go and throw a fit and start writing letters to the CEO demanding everyone be fired.

At work I'm pure robot.

No humor, no emotion, and yes I will indeed repeat the same thing again and again 20 times, using the exact same phrasing and inflection each time.

[SkullBash]

Yeah, I've stopped making jokes with customers, too. Having a personality can be offensive. Too many times I've had to laugh awkwardly as things whistled over their head, or that their minor inconvenience is SO SERIOUS AND IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER. The latter type really annoys me. Until we all become a brain surgeons or otherwise deal with life and death, there is NOTHING about our jobs worth taking so seriously. Imagine how much easier life would be if people would unclench and relax....

Then again, strong coffee might prevent that, such as in the OP's case. /espressoshot