I realised that I have a tendency to ignore our receptionist. I give a little smile when passing by in the morning, but our office layout requires walking past several times in the day. I donât want to say hi every time I pass, but I donât want to look like I ignore her either. I try to carry something with me so I can pretend Iâm reading it every time I walk past.
Itâs not that I donât like the receptionist. She is very nice. I hear people visiting the building stopping and flirting and making cute comments about this and that with her. They have a laugh, talk about nothing in particular, and pretend they got something out of the human interaction. I suppose this doesnât make much sense.
I used to work at a Super 8 motel in rural Missouri for about a year while I was attending university. I was the night clerk. I ran the motel from 11pm to 7am by myself and attended school after work (I didnât sleep much in those days). During my shift, Iâd sit there behind the front desk and watch people walk back and forth to their car to carry their bags into their room. Each time they passed me, they felt they had to say somethingââJust getting my suitcasesâ, âJust a couple more tripsâ, âJust one more nowâ. Like I care! They didnât have to say something EVERY time they passed by. But, I think they felt rude if they didnâtâlike I would somehow feel under appreciated.
So, I mostly ignore the receptionist. I walk while examining some papers that are obviously so important that I donât have time to make eye contact and say something useless like âjust off to the loo.â
