My husband recently told me that not all cultures regularly ask people how they are doing with no genuine curiosity as to how the person is actually doing.
Walking by someone on the way to the bathroom, “Hey, how’s it going?”
Calling your dentist to make an appointment, “Hi. How are you?”
Even starting an email with, “Hope you had a great weekend! Do you happen to have that spreadsheet ready?” Do I really care that this person had any sort of weekend? I’ve never met them. Hell, I don’t even know if they are in my building or in Wisconsin. Deep down, I don’t care. I just want my spreadsheet so I can finish the project, get through rush hour traffic and watch Intervention on my couch. AND, what if their weekend was horrible? What if they were taken out to a seafood dinner only to be told they’re being dumped? Or worse, the other party decides to divulge every detail of the Home Depot trip they made. TWICE (because all Home Depot trips are made twice). How they went for a box of galvanized nails but settled for steel before remembering they needed Liquid-Plumr and a plunger because the one they found in the garage left by the previous owners was obviously off-brand and definitely not industrial-grade, which is fine, for simple jobs, but not the job they had to tackle; which reminds them to also get a new toilet seat because plastic lids are basically useless if anyone over 95lbs were to sit on them while closed, leading to that concave dent in the lid; both embarrassing and potentially dangerous should the plastic crack and pinch one’s butt cheeks leading to an unexpected, not to mention inconvenient, trip to the ER.
Thankfully, in our culture, it’s polite to ask how someone is and they are required to answer, “Good.” Or, in rare cases the occasional, “Great!” is acceptable. Don’t raise your voice too many decibels because then the person asking feels obligated to feel equally excited for you and they probably (really) need to pee.
The all-time greatest, culturally hilarious, borderline genius and personal favorite is the one that goes like this,
Person 1: “Hey! What’s new?”
Person 2: “Good!”
Person 1 and Person 2 have checked the box for daily-social-obligation with a stranger. They may now proceed with their daily activities.
Side note: This does not apply to very close coworkers, friends, or your significant other. They will/should always (pretend to) care how the two trips to Home Depot went, how you know the toilet seat won’t hold your weight, and if the ER doctor gave you some really good pills to get through the pain of butt cheeks that have been pinched by said toilet seat.
And with that, I hope you all have a happy Thursday!
-Jess
28 and Holding 
Jessica, I am just a little slow to say, this was a good one. So true and this certainly makes me so glad to be out of the work force. Most folks today are to easy to offend. I say, get a life.
Some day, some time, some one is going to discover your writing talents and off your will go into your real love. Thanks for sharing these posts with me, it always love reading them.
Love, Grandma ________________________________