Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

One of my pet peeves (at least since college) is the "greeting" of "How are you?" 99 times out of 100 the person making the inquiry doesn't want an answer; the standard response (if anything) is supposed to be something like "fine, thanks" with maybe an "and you?" tacked on for polite conversation. If you're having a crappy day, and share it, the other person often seems disoriented and confused, because they didn't really want to know.

Yesterday, just about everyone I encountered at my old workplace asked, "So, are you glad to be back?" The looks on their faces generally read, "I expect you to say 'yes.'" My response of "Well..." wasn't what they wanted to hear. I hope tomorrow (my next day there) people stick to just "Welcome back" and leave it there.