So I'm in Starbucks and the cashier says to me after handing me my coffee...he says to me: "Have such a nice day!" I mean, what a jerk, right? Wait, you mean that was actually a thoughtful and sincere gesture to brighten my day with a surprising subversion of the daily routine? Maybe. But as I am with these kinds of things, I am skeptical.
80% of the equation here is probably my own neurosis about these kinds of transactional dialogues. I still don't really know what to say or how much to say when there's some business to get to. Maybe it's my five-paragraph essay training from high school that says you can't just switch from one paragraph to the next, but you also need transitional sentences to get to the coffee, like "Yes, it's sure hot outside, but not as hot as that grande americano I would like to order right now please." These feelings wax and wane with my mood, though, and lest you worry about me I assure you that I am a relatively well adjusted adult that is successfully coping with these challenges.
But back to this jerk. Or maybe this really nice guy. I've seen this tactic before. It's a kind of phrase adoption some people do to reanimate trite expressions, and I can respect that. I once knew someone who, instead of saying "I appreciate that" or even the more common "Thanks" would always say "I appreciate you." It was a nice little touch, but once I caught on the act was up and I felt less and less validated each time.
So, I'm still not sure where I stand on all this. It's just a thing people do and it's fine. But if I had to program a robot to speak, I think would probably let him experiment with these phrases sometimes, but never to repeat them over and over to the same people. Also, I would allow all possible one-word deviations from the robot to be equally probable, however meaningless or on the cusp of meaning they might be: "Have a horse nice day!", "Have a nice dark day!" These one-word interpolations would have koan-like qualities coming from a robot, I think.
But then again, some people with a lot of phrases like these can be endearing, so do whatever you want, robot.
Have you heard any similar phrase adoptions? Have you adopted any yourself? I won't judge.
I have some insight into the barista's salutation. He wasn't thinking about you at all. He was mixing it up for his own sanity. When I worked at Racetrac I would start to feel nauseated from saying the same two things to customers; "Hello, hello!", and "Come back and see us." I eventually figured out that if I forced myself to say something unusual or unatural, the day went by a lot faster. I also liked to experiment with people to see if they were actually listening to what i said. I would say things like "Have a nice gay!", or "Good to pee you!", making sure to annunciate the abnormalities. It turns out that no one even tunes in to what your saying if they expect it to be something they've heard thousands of times.
ReplyDeleteKyle,
ReplyDeleteGreat point. I have experienced that same monotony in customer service jobs and only wished I had the guts to say those things. I think I would rather die than work at one of those places with forced greetings. Cici's Pizza would give me a stroke.