August 16, 2010

Intruding Space of Others

[From article]
"the woman on Madison Avenue holding that dread thing, the clipboard. They want you to sign something in favor of a cause, or sign up for something. She was a big girl, 6 feet tall, with 10 arms. She saw me coming 15 feet away and placed herself in the middle of the sidewalk so I'd have to speak or go around her. "How are you today?" she barked, demanded. It was embarrassing not to reply and made me feel vaguely guilty, which is the way they want you to feel so you'll give up and engage.
[. . .]
She has been taught by consultants how to "handle" people like me. Her instructions are that if anyone accepts her ministrations with anything but passive surrender, she is to show she is impervious and keep the line moving. She is probably taught this in a class given by government contractors who are paid by taxpayers to handle taxpayers. Meaning I pay her to be rude to me."

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:declarations.html

We Pay Them to Be Rude to Us

In the service economy, all of us want to take the chute

Peggy Noonan
New York Post

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