Sitting talking at work, me and my co-workers(with my boss, who I love to work with, and is wonderful) we got into this conversation of how a specific question in conversation with strangers bugs each other. She said, one of the questions which used to bother her was "What do you do?"
Have you encountered someone you have just met(especially in educational background, or some ethnic backgrounds who just ask that question right away, instead of getting to know you? I have been told that in educational background they approach you and first question of gauging your intellect is "What do you do?" and depending upon where you stand in their scale of judgement, the rest of the conversation proceeds.
Or along with that question, they ask more of these questions, "What car you drive?, Where do you work?, What suburb do you live in?" Pretty open as much as it sounds, I've felt in the past that it has been very judgemental.
Once my dad had advised me, you don't need to answer any questions if you don't feel like. The pretty simplest way to confront the situation and defuse it to ask the same question back to the person. Sometimes, I've asked the question if it is from a total stranger who is trying to gauge my 'whatever'(still haven't figured out what others want to know, nor I am taking it personally I've replied this question for someone from the country of origin as I am, by saying "May I ask why do you like to know?(Mind you, I was genuinely sincere about their motive).
What do you do, when you are asked the question "what do you do?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
i go ahead and answer... but i think what i do is pretty cool. so, i don't feel weird about it. also, from my ethnic background it is a pretty standard first question.
i understand, though, its not necessarily a good way to determine who a person is. and there are some folks who feel judged and others who are really judgemental about it.
partly, i think some people want to know what you do, what occupies 40 hours of your week so they know what subject matters you might have in common. its a way to know what a person's interests are and whether you have any interests in common with them.
Post a Comment