Work Encounter
Guy comes in, dressed in a green T-shirt with a picture of a tree branch on it, some squirrels, nuts, and the statement "It's all fun and games until someone loses a nut." He's acting very professional and reservered, careful with his words, wanting to know how he can avail himself of the server backups we keep, due to having deleted some important file. He works in the Institute for Sustainable Energy.
I tell him the information he needs to know, who to contact, and what to expect of them and follow up with "...and I have the same shirt in blue," without changing my tone at all. He actually looked at his shirt to see what he was wearing and then grinned knowingly, like I saw through his act and recognized him as One of Us®. He said, well uh..thanks for the info, and uh...good taste in shirts.
I tell him the information he needs to know, who to contact, and what to expect of them and follow up with "...and I have the same shirt in blue," without changing my tone at all. He actually looked at his shirt to see what he was wearing and then grinned knowingly, like I saw through his act and recognized him as One of Us®. He said, well uh..thanks for the info, and uh...good taste in shirts.