I am RUDE

Apparently I am rude.  That is the impression someone tried to give me Thursday at work.

I am a busy person at work.  Ya know, it's not that I'm unfriendly, it is just that I am WORKING.  Most of the time, as I make my way from one end of the building to the other, I get stopped countless times.  Sometimes the person stopping my journey actually needed my help.  Other times they just needed someone to give them attention.

So on Thursday I was stopped with one of those people that just wanted someone to talk to.  I was being friendly and stopped for a minute to chat.  He asked me, "How are you doing?"   I told him that I was doing pretty good and then I said something about work.  He looked at me obviously waiting for something.  When I didn't say anything else, he said, "Yeah, I'm doing fine."   OH! He was waiting for me to ask how he was doing.   So, I laughed a bit and asked how he was doing.  That's when he started in to a whole story about what happened last night.  

That's exactly why I didn't ask him how he was doing!  He was either going to lie and say he was fine or he was going to go into this long story that I didn't have time to listen to at the moment.  I didn't want to hear either, so I didn't ask.

My question is why do people that want to talk about themselves ask how I am doing?  They want to appear that the are interested in me, but really they are only waiting for my automatic response of, "I'm good.  How are you?"

For the rest of the afternoon, I paid attention to the conversations I was having and how many people used that as an introduction to themselves.  One other person tried to bait me into a story about themselves by asking about me and one person was obviously dying to tell a story but didn't tell it when I didn't ask it.   A few people didn't bother asking about me or waiting for me to ask about them.  They just went straight into their story.

I think I would prefer my coworkers just to ask me, "Do you have a few minutes?  I'd like to tell you about what I had for dinner last night."  That at least gives me a fair shot at letting them know I do or don't have time at the moment.

I'm really not trying to be rude to my coworkers when I don't ask how they are doing.  It's not always the case that I just don't care.  It's just that I am busy.  And now I'm irritated.  Stop assuming that I am going to invite your story into my day just because you asked how I am doing.  Chances are I won't ask you, no mater how long you stare at me with that look that says, "You are RUDE."