The Question

May 24, 2008 - 22:33 PM PST

No one really listens anymore. While working at a restaurant, I have come to find “small talk” monotonous and rehearsed. For instance, when people walk through the door, my job as a cashier is to welcome them and cheerfully ask how they are doing, but do I really care? No. I’m just doing my job while hoping that I can get off work soon and do something else. Then again, the customers don’t actually care what I say. Either the people who come in are working themselves, or they’re in a big hurry to see that special movie. In both cases, they tend to ignore my mandatory acknowledgment of their existence, and jump right into ordering their greasy meals.
However, there are exceptions to every situation. For example: the type of customers who say “Good, and how are you?”, but then don’t stop to listen to my reply. Sometimes I almost wonder what customers would say if I replied with a frown and said, “Horrible. My feet hurt, I’ve been here all day, my boss hates me, I can’t go on break because you’re here, and I’m so hungry I feel that my gastric juices are perpetually digesting my meager stomach lining.” One of two things would happen: A. they would smile and say, “Good,” and then order their food, or B. they would become confused and stare at me for endless minutes before finally saying “I’m sorry,” and then order their meals.
Basically, this greeting exchange is nothing more than theatrics that society has created in order to fill the façade of a polite and blissful civilization, and I hate it. So if you ever come into the restaurant in which I slave, be prepared for me to slap on a fake, but pleasant smile, and ask you that thought provoking question: How are you today?