Hi. How are you?

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I don't understand compulsory greetings. I don't understand why complete strangers are expected to say "hello" when they pass one another. I don't understand why I am required to greet each and every customer that comes to my register instead of just working. Getting them in and out quickly. Who goes to a grocery store for conversation? Our customers, apparently. Which...is OK. I mean, if they feel like having a conversation while I scan and bag their stuff, that's fine. But why am I required to initiate the interaction? Why does it matter? If THEY want to talk, they'll talk regardless of whether I have greeted them.

Why does our society put so much importance in pointless conversation? Why do we ask questions that we don't REALLY care to hear the answers to? "How are you?" rarely means that the person asking genuinely wants to hear the answer. They typically want to hear "fine. how are you?". What is the damn point? Discuss.

JOIN THE CLUB!! !! !! ! I say it ONLY out of habit, because all have done it with me, but I give time for an answer and react. If they DON'T answer I will say, hopefully loud enough for them to hear, "THAT bad, huh?".

Where I am now, if I DARE call the hotel, they give me the "HI, it's a great day at ...., this is ...., can I help you?". And places like Mcdonald's try to upsell before I even order. I never really hear them, and HATE the noise, so I just yell NO THANKS!

BTW your avatar shows the surprise and inquisitive look that really FITS here!

I do not understand this either. I remember my ex insisted that I ask her how her day was to prove to her that I was interested, but I felt (and still feel) that if she had a remarkable day, she would say so, and if she did not have a remarkable day, why should I ask about it every day? I did go with asking her because this was apparently a big thing and a minor compromise, but I do not get it.

I worked in McDonald's as a teenager. The main things I remember are:

* Learning social scripts for greeting people and thanking them
* Spending about 1/4-1/3 of every shift in the restroom dealing with sensory overload.

I find that I still fall back on those scripts for many social interactions.

I worked at McDonalds for a while as a teenager and they required the cashier to upsell. They were trained to do it, and if someone higher up like from the head store was watching you, or if there was a mystery shopper (someone in disguise as a regular customer who was really judging how well you followed procedure/how good the service was) you'd better be upselling.

I learned their scripts and was pretty good in parroting what I was supposed to say. I could get from "Good morning, how can I help you" all the way to "Thanks, have a nice day." just from repetition. It was the customers who wanted to have conversations that I had more trouble with.

They constantly told me I needed to take more initiative.

Greeting is just about being polite. If you are working in customer service greeting your customers is even more important, because you are representing your company. I work in customer service, and being nice with customers makes a HUGE difference. If you treat them nice they are more likely to come back.

i am expected to make small talk at nmy job, and i suck. if the client says one small thing outside of the ordinary, i get confused and go blank.

YES:

me: hello, how are you?
them: fine, how are you?

-or-

me: hello, how are you?
them: fine, how's the weather there?

NO:

me: hello, how are you?
them: fine, but why is the hold music so boring?


i even have trouble if coworkers ask me how my weekend went or something. i can never remember anything about it, so it takes me few long seconds to retrieve the information.

One cannot be nice without initiating ultimately pointless chit chat? Isn't the actual, you know, work more important?

The chit-chat is actually part of your work. Your work is not only get money from your customer, but try to do it again. If you are nice enough the customer would like to buy again from your store. My husband and I only buy from stores which workers are nice to us. If workers are rude we wont buy from that store again. Being nice is an important part of customer service.

And this right here is why I could never get a job working for McDonalds.