NTs who only talk to you when they're on the clock

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This is a huge pet peeve of mine.

When I'm talking with a person, if it goes past quitting time I finish the conversation. Unless I have to be someplace or my ride is waiting.

I have been in a conversation with a person (and SHE was the one talking!) who was right in the middle of a sentence and then said "Five oclock!" and turned and walked away and went home. Just like that.

It's also common to come upon a person who will talk your ear off endlessly while they're on the clock, but later when they're off they won't even say hello to you or are very brisk and walk away. That tells me I'm being used to kill time while they're getting paid for nothing, and when they're on their own time they wouldn't bother speaking to me. It's quite insulting.

Have you seen this kind of thing? I know we're supposed to be the ones who lack social skills, but I'm never that rude and I don't use people just to waste time.

Thankfully I've never had any experiences like that. Theres almost always some boredom chatter anywhere, but never to such a ridiculous degree.

Ha! I've been in that situation once before. It's like you see that person on the street and they're fiercely trying to pretend you're not there, like they're determined to NOT acknowledge anything you say or do. The trouble with that is that I have poor facial recognition (which is a paradox because I enjoy drawing faces), so when they do that, it really confuses me. It makes me wonder if they're really a stranger who resembles this person I know. The situation I alluded to at the beginning was definitely not mistaken identity tho.

they probably see 'being friendly and conversing with co-workers' as part of the job - part of what they are payed to do. Nothing personal - when the clock runs out, so does their responsibility to communicate with you.

Or maybe they're distracted and in a hurry.

My mistake is that I take those conversations as actual friendliness. I have stayed long after I was off the clock many, many times to finish a conversation, or to help someone. It just seems like the right thing to do. But I've rarely seen this done by others.

I do take it personally, because if your good friend was standing there talking to you, you won't stay to finish no matter if you were being paid to or not. That shows me how silly I was that I thought this person was a friend, when all along they were just using me as an amusement or distraction while the clock was running out on the day.

I really have not experienced that much. Maybe it is from being in the deep south, but down here, we tend to be still talking as we are getting into our cars.

The few times I have experienced it, it was usually from someone that was just there for the check and once the "whistle blew" they just wanted to get out as fast as they could. They were not good smoozers and tended to not advance.

Isn't that strange; I have almost nil interest in chit-chat in that environment. It is a skill painfully learnt for me over many months of practice. When I used to be an employee instead of self-employed, I had to learn to endure the mindless yak-yak-yak way beyond the time I was paid to, and it was awful. Having to juggle the eye-contact thing, having to be polite to people I was convinced (wrongly) were idiots, having to tell lies (be diplomatic), having to do the words things instead of nice grunts, sounds and stuff I can easily do; it was just too stressful. Now that I'm self-employed, I talk to people because I am genuinely interested most of the time, rather than because I am paid to. I still wouldn't stay behind talking.

And I'm here chatting. And I'm working on the computer. And I'm not being paid to chat. Something's wrong, surely. Confusing.

You know what I find annoying too? People who start a conversation in town and then suddenly walk off or look pointedly at their watch. They started talking to me so they ought not to be so rude and suddenly end the conversation with no explanation. If I suddenly realised I was late and had to be elsewhere, at least I would have the courtesy to say "look, I'm sorry but I really have to go now, nice to see you again".