this needs to stop

dear people of the office world,
this needs to stop.

asking 'how are you' immediately after (or even instead of!) saying 'hi' is just not cool and needs to stop. nobody is comfortable with it, not even those masters of small talk, who pretend that they are.

nobody is genuinely interested in how their colleagues are and nobody can claim to feel okay after an exchange along the lines of 'good-and-yourself-good-good (forced smile)' while exiting an elevator with 7 other people. how do you carry on with your day after this meaningless, fake interaction?

eastern europeans have accommodated this largely american / british-driven trend by talking about how they really are, most of the time in a very strict sense and thus resulting in lengthy oversharing sprees about one's migraine, food poisoning, antihistamine side-effects, or kids getting chickenpox. it's beautiful, but unnecessary.

the frenchies turned 'ca va' into 'hi', which makes things significantly less embarrassing. 'ca va?' 'ca va'. end of story. kisses and hugs are optional, and only if you're about to have wine.

the rest just keep feeling awkward. ironically so, because all of this comes from the fear of awkward silences, but it results in nothing else but more awkwardness. please stop doing it.