The great thing about moving buildings is knowing that you can be really rude to people and know you won't see them again.
I waited for the lift to go up. It arrived, but the arrow on the control panel and the disembodied woman from Brooklyn told it was going down. Next to me some woman said, "Excuse me, do you want the lift or not?" Her tone was aggressive. Her friend said to her calmly, "It's going down."
"I wanted to go for the ride," she said. You may well laugh, recounting the tale later Caroline said she needs to get out more. In fairness, she then explained "That bloke with the boxes often gets in." I wanted to say that that bloke with the boxes is John, he's a colleague of yours, and his moving the boxes, a job he's been doing at least twenty years, is a vital function for the organisation. Instead, I was thinking - she would not have spoken to me if she knew what grade I was. Should I point out to her that I am an SEO - in her organisation that is someone who sits at the right hand of god. In my organisation, it's a core grade. Then I worried, was I being gradist? I'm not into inappropriate gradism.
Meanwhile, she had reached her floor and got out. A man got in, and came up to my floor, even though he is not of my floor. Someone else wanting to ride the lift, no doubt. "You shouldn't look that miserable," he said. "It's only halfway through the week. You never know, you might win the lottery tonight." I had never seen him before, so there was no way he would know that I am normally a cheerful jokey person.
I decided to let rip. "It is incredibly rude to talk to people like that. You have absolutely no idea what's going on in people's lives." With that, I was through the door into our office and he was on his downwards ride. Recounting the tale to Karen and Caroline, they both gave examples of when people had used the "Cheer up, don't look so miserable," to someone just widowed and someone on their mother's anniversary. For me, I was just absorbed in inconsequential thought. But how was he to know?
Later, overheard in Boots, "...because I moved her poxy suitcase. It's not like the aisle isn't big enough but she didn't care where she put the poxy thing." Seeing a woman - a tourist - standing a clear foot from her suitcase, I smiled.
