Busy, Busy at Work
Jul. 9th, 2025 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI'm glad that we got back from our trip to Oregon a bit after 5pm on Sunday. Having a few hours to unpack and wind down on Sunday evening has made it easier to hit the ground running at work this week. And running is what I've been doing. I mean, not literally running; I have a desk job! But running from one meeting to the next. My calendar has been booked solid with meetings and assorted work tasks the first three days this week.
It's customary at each meeting as the first few of us join to ask one another, "How are things going?" We Americans know this is a generic greeting, a perfunctory statement of positive intent. The expected answer is an equally perfunctory, "Fine, thanks, and you?" It is absolutely not an actual question to which an actual, detail answer is expected. This cultural norm is mildly annoying to people from other English-speaking cultures and absolutely bewildering to people from outside the Anglosphere.
Well, I've started to surprise my fellow Americans by answering "How are you doing?" and "How are things going?" with "Busy, busy!" It's a simple and true statement. And it's amusing how many people are gobsmacked by my not-"fine" response.
It's customary at each meeting as the first few of us join to ask one another, "How are things going?" We Americans know this is a generic greeting, a perfunctory statement of positive intent. The expected answer is an equally perfunctory, "Fine, thanks, and you?" It is absolutely not an actual question to which an actual, detail answer is expected. This cultural norm is mildly annoying to people from other English-speaking cultures and absolutely bewildering to people from outside the Anglosphere.
Well, I've started to surprise my fellow Americans by answering "How are you doing?" and "How are things going?" with "Busy, busy!" It's a simple and true statement. And it's amusing how many people are gobsmacked by my not-"fine" response.
