Why Ask?

Originally posted March 26, 2009

No seriously. Why do people bother asking a question if they really aren’t interested in listening to the answer?
For example….

Apparently, I am the “voice of the company” (I curse being English in America sometimes) so I get the awesomely fun and exciting task of answering the company telephone lines. Yes, I am an over worked receptionist! Now, without fail, whenever “Mr. / Ms. Random” calls up they always say “hello, how are you doing today?” So what’s wrong with that I hear you ask? Nothing I guess if the enquirer is actually genuinely interested in the response, however the vast majority of the time its one of those questions that just slips out without any thought. They’re not interested in the answer, not one bit!

I came to the realisation a few months back that unless I have a regular phone relationship with someone that calls I REALLY don’t care how they are doing. They’re just someone else at the end of the line that has little bearance on my day-to-day. You want to ask me how I’m doing, great, but know this, I can tell by your voice mannerisms whether you are really, truely interested in listening to the answer. I’m not going to ask you in return either because I really don’t care!