Do they really give a damn about "How you doin"?

How you doin’? :)

Hi!

How YOU doin’?

Yeah I find it annoying, cuz I have to say “Yeah good, you?” and then wait for them to reply, before I can just get on with what I came over to ask, which is probs summat like “lend us ya tape a sec.”

I always say Hi. When I walk up to a counter to pay for a purchase or order, I say “hi” really perky like, because, well, I’m perky. Usually though, no one says hi back. I think cashiers hate perky.

Of course they don’t care how you’re doing… anymore than the ones who endlessy interject “knowwhamsayin’” every five or six words really care if you have the foggiest notion what they’re talking about.

And because most of them talk as if they have marbles in their mouth, I have very little idea what they’re sayin’. Usually it’s not much anything of value :)

I find it very annoying – it is one of my pet peeves. Students come up to the Help Desk and ask, “How are you?” Meh – just ask me what you want.

Try “How do you do?”
AKA ‘a fine howdy do’
I have friends who smile cheerfully and say things in answer to “How ya doin?” like “I died yesterday” or “I have terminal cancer” in the same tone they would say “just fine, and you?” and see if it is even noticed.

well, i’m just glad they speak to me…whatever they say is fine!

@BoBo1946 but do they get your order right?

Customer service professionals are trained to ask that; it’s considered polite. What is not polite is abusing minimum wage earners who are obligated to ask you how you are doing.

@anartist most of the time…i live in a small community and that makes a big difference.

When I get, rarely, unwanted phone calls from salesmen or charity or political fundraisers, ]they will ask, “How are you today?” In my most pleasant voice, I answer, “I never discuss my health with strangers.”

I had thought about this when I was doing heavy thinking about artificial intelligence and the Turing test. There were discussions that AI wasn’t even on the horizon yet because essentially the computer was just giving back canned responses to input it was given. And I thought that was how humans did it much of the time, too. Someone inputs “How are you?” and the other outputs “Fine!” No real thinking going on there.

That being said, not long after my wife’s accident when I was ready for a breakdown I was phoned by an unpleasant individual who wanted to know why one of her bills weren’t paid. He asked me how I was and I said, “My wife was just killed in a car accident, I’m losing my house, and I’m losing my step-kids.” That gave him a pause, he said he’d call at a better time, and I should “have a nice day. Oh, geez, sorry. >click<”

It’s one of the things I had to memorize about social conventions. I tend to take questions literally and used to give a detailed response to such.

Why on earth would anyone get so upset over a silly social convention. “How do you do, sir or madame, may I help you?” “Hi ya – what’s up?” “Howdy Pardner” “Well, hello darlin’ it’s so nice to see you today”.

@gailcalled my mother was so funny after my dad had passed. She took all calls that asked for him, saying “He can’t come to the phone right now; he’s resting.”

Can’t believe you haven’t mentioned the exchange of, “Hey!”

At first it didn’t bother me…but, it does now. It feels so incomplete and shallow. Probably no more so than “Whasup?”

Guess that means that I am indeed getting old. (I don’t feel old.)

@anartist:—I really enjoy people with that type of humor. It also saves the horrible embarrassment on the part of the callers who hadn’t heard of your dad’s death.

@gailcalled
My mom was the best, the wittiest, and the most loving that ever was
And I sure do miss her. I want to call her up every day. She would have liked you.

@anartist: Both parents gone? I’d be happy to sub.

—@gailcalled luv ya for the offer but they were one of a kind
besides 63 is respectable age to be an orphan—

it’s one thing to ask how they’re doin’ and mean, let alone care, about it, but another thing to respond

May I suggest a standard answer: “Thank you so much for your concern, today is the best day I have ever had.”

Yeah, ask someone on their job how theyre doing.
You do realize that sometimes companies really do hire “secret shoppers” to judge how well theyre working. These people shouldn’t be socializing while on the clock like this.

But yes, people say hello and goodmorning where I’m from. Try not living in a big city or something ridiculous like that.

If while in America such an individual said the immortal, classic line “Y’all have a nice day now you hear” I would first state that I was on my own so who the fuck exactly is “you all” Second, yeah nothing amiss with my hearing as far as i’m aware & lastly, inform them that I was attending a funeral that very morning so was probably unlikely to have anything resembling a “nice” day. So disingenuous, it could not & would not go by without reprimand. Here in England town we get by with a perfectly civil “aye aye” or “see you after”.

Can I get my fucking taco already?

I’ve been saying “Howdy” lately without having given any thought to the etymology of it. Apparently, I’ve been asking “How do ye?” every time I’ve given this greeting without expecting anything but a “Hello” back.

I hate “how are you” (and its variants) as well. It’s awkward, shallow, stupid. I’m with @chyna, whenever I walk up to a cashier I just smile and say “Hiii…” followed by what I want from them. I hate reciting “Good, how are you?” when someone asks me; it always feels so absurd. It delivers almost no honest information.

To be honest, I don’t recall any cashiers asking me how I am. It’s usually people I’m vaguely acquainted with, but that’s no better. Perhaps it’s a regional thing. I’m from Long Island so strangers aren’t awfully friendly.

@le_inferno My favorite reply to the meaningless “How Are You” is “Beautiful weather, isn’t it?”

Damn. California is much more polite than all ya’lls states. When I someone asks how I’m doing, I always reply with, “good, how are you?” A lot of times customer service people look at me like I am the only person who treated them like a human being the whole day. Sometimes they even say it.

All of you who worry about how the world’s going to hell and people are so horrible, maybe it’s time to look at yourself. How hard is it to just be polite?

I would really hate to work in a role where I’d have to “serve” the public, so when I am interacting with people in that role, I give a smile and a “Thanks very much mate, av a good night!”

As @tinyfaery says, it’s probably just nice for them to be occasionally not treated like a soulless drone.
I mean, I am a drone in my job, but so is everyone else in the building. I can only imagine having lots of not-at-work members of the public around makes ya sense of the mundaneneity (new word!) of the role that much more acute.

I understand your stance against rudeness @tinyfaery. But let me ask you, does the person really give a damn about how you are doing? I propose the comment as disingenuous. And I find disingenuous comments extremely rude.

I understand the comment from a friend or even an acquaintance. They may actually have earned the right to ask and know how I’m doing. The chances of their genuine interest in how I’m doing is much greater, because we’re acquainted.

BTW… I spoke with the manager at our local Taco Bell. I asked him about the policy of asking. He confirmed that it was corporate mandate to ask how you’re doing. I told him how I felt about it and he agreed. I went there last night to get the kid a taco. The drive up speaker said: “Hi. May I help you”?

“Yes thanks”.

No they don’t give a damn. People are insincere in all areas of life. Why repudiate a polite gesture?

Or the converse; after the tech. support people at my local server struggle in vain to repair a problem, they end the unsuccessful conversation with, “Have a nice day.”

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies LOL, you’re too much.

Personally, give people the “benefit of the doubt” on being disingenuous! After all, most people are not mind readers! Take it for face value and say good morning, good afternoon, or whatever! Don’t really see this as a big deal… If the person says nothing, it is worse than saying something.

Question: if the person said nothing, what would be your position?

How about the “Thank you for using Apple,” after a long, messy, incomprehensible and unsuccessful talk with a techie from Swaziland? Often that is followed by, “Is there anything else we can help you with today?”

No offence to anyone here from Swaziland, as long as you don’t work for Apple.)

@BoBo1946 If they said nothing, I’d say “Hello”.

@gailcalled That is frustrating. Shouldn’t the follow up be, “Is there anything else we can’t help you with today”?

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies got’cha…me too!

I was under the impression that Apple was one of the few companies which does NOT outsource their tech help to other countries. Has that changed recently ?

Plus I’ve had worse experience with English speaking clueless newbies taking long pauses to read the manual while tryng to advise me.

When that happens, I just insist that they transfer me up to a “Product Specialist” which is their equivalent term for “Manager”.

All in all, they are still the one company consistently rated #1 for customer service by Consumer Reports year after year.

@Buttonstc: I should have used Verizon in my example, instead of Apple.

You know something? I thought I was the only one who hated “How are you”? It’s so mindless and ignorant. They don’t really want to know how you are (well, rarely, anyway). They just want you to say “I am fine.” Now if you’re the customer and the person who says it is an employee (cashier, bank teller, etc.), in many cases they’re required to say it, so I understand. But when it’s not an employee/customer situation, it makes my blood boil. About 5 years ago, everything was going horribly wrong, and every time I turned around, something more went wrong. Many times a day, I had “How are you” in a singsong way, and it constantly reminded me of how terrible everything was. And if you say “not too terrible” or “fair”, they look at you funny like it’s the wrong answer. There’s no meaning behind it.

One person stated that nobody says “Hello” anymore. When did tons of people saying “How are you” all the time instead of hello?

Where I live everyone says “You alright”! They are as common as muck!! and it even comes out as “yaarr allriiiitttte” annoys the hell out of me, but its just the local accent.

Those dreadful commoners, eh?
Wretched creatures at the best of times, but then to hear them speak! Oh, it’s just torturous!

@The_Idler I know shocking how some people speak, honestly you’d think that the British education system would have encouraged a standard of accent even for the poor folk ;-)

@MissA I have gotten in the habit of saying “hey.” It should make @RealEyesRealizeRealLies happy – at least I’m not asking for any response in return. By the way, “hello” in Swedish is “hej” (pronounced “hey.)