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What happens to people?

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vrbryant

vrbryant

Ever thus to ____ers
Staff member
What is it that happens to people after working in an office setting for too long that causes them to force out minute after minute of inane, pointless small talk? Is there an official name for this condition? I would love to organize interventions, but without a name it's tough to get people on board. At any rate, if there are any psychologists or neurologists out there who can shed some light--that'd be super. Just for kicks, here's a very abbreviated version of a roughly five minute conversation that just took place near my office:

Man: I mowed my lawn yesterday. It was nice out.
Woman: Oh, yes. It's been very nice outside recently.
Man: I got grass stains all over my sneakers.
Woman: Oh no!
Man: Yeah, my wife yelled at me because they were supposed to be my nice sneakers.
Woman: Right, because most people have an extra pair that they just use for mowing the lawn.
Man: I have those, but there isn't any tread on the bottoms any more, so I wore the nice ones.
Woman: Kohl's is a nice place to buy shoes. They have name brand shoes at discount prices. I was there the other day and I thought, "Wow!"
Man: Yeah, I've been there. I've been to DSW a couple times too.
Woman: Oh, yeah.
Man: Have you been to the outlets down there, south of Grove City?
Woman: Oh, yeah. What are they called?
Man: They have them all over. I think...
Woman: Prime Outlets?
Man: Yeah, I think so.
Woman: Yeah.
Man: My niece needed these special shoes once for...something. I don't remember. Anyway, we went all over to find them and we couldn't find them. Eventually I told her she needed to call some friends to figure out where to get them. I said, "We're running out of stores!" *laughter*
Woman: *laughter*
Man: So, yeah.

Amazingly, it was a lot more detailed than that. In any event, I just don't want that to happen to me. Please advise.
 
We just got a Kohls in Sandusky. I havn't mowed a lawn in over a year, been building a house and have the family in a condo. I wonder where I put my mowing sneakers? There is a nice Pantera Bread store near our Kohls.
 
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jcfiesta said:
There is a nice Pantera Bread store near our Kohls.
Click to expand...

Do they serve ass-ripping, heavy metal bagels?

51294.jpg
 
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It's called people don't have a personality, so they resort to inanities. I try to avoid speaking or listening to those individuals as much as possible. Then again, if you don't like the conversation, start talking about porn or Pantera or politics or something that will get an interesting conversation going!
 
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They're just babbling to avoid work.

Plus, the guy's desperately trying to get laid, since it's clearly been quite a while for him.
 
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If I can add to vrbryant's frustrations- what's worse is the guy who talks about that story, but just keeps going and going; talking more and more about completely irrelevant details that nobody needs to know. The guy who will take the "lawnmowing sneakers" story and stretch it out to about 15 minutes.

We've got a guy like that in the office, and I avoid him like the plague.
 
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My in-laws and my wife have a need to fill every waking moment with conversation which leads to moronic small talk. It's annoying as hell. I once told my wife's brother (I refuse to call him my brother-in-law b/c I prefer to live in denial that I married into a family with a 33 year old Star Wars loving freak who still lives in his parents basement) to shut the hell up when he was trying to start up a conversation about why he likes a particular kind of turtle necked shirt...ugh. I think he wanted to cry, but since there was a shampoo commercial on with some broad taking a shower and I really wasn't in the mood to care. I really respect a person who actually shuts up when there's nothing to talk about; there's just too few of them...
 
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vrbryant said:
I said, "We're running out of stores!" *laughter*
Woman: *laughter*
Man: So, yeah.
Click to expand...

Ugh, that's my least favorite part of that familiar conversation, the office laughter and the awkward trailing-off. My boss and a colleague will regularly regale each other with their latest vendor phone calls and then cackle and guffaw, respectively, for 5 minutes at a time--all the while I'm thinking, "weren't you supposed to leave 15 minutes ago?" Who the heck stays in the office longer than they have to--with no overtime?? And how is a story about vendor pricing funny?
 
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VR - It is time to bag the great American novel and just go right for the perfect Hollywood script. I sensing a Kevin Smith type of work.

"This job would be great if it wasn't for the fucking customers. "
 
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