Repetitive Conversations

Do you ever find yourself repeating the same conversation with the same people on a regular basis? Sometimes it is like a habit that you get into and it almost becomes tradition, a shame to give up (especially if you are used to holding the same exact conversation after many years). I'll give you an example: when I worked for the Windmill Hotel in 1995, one of my jobs was to work the switchboard. It took me a while to get used to the sound of the phone ringing as it was easily confused with the soft bell the elevators would use to announce their arrival in the lobby. In any case, each afternoon at about 3pm, the wife of one of the guys in management would call. This is how the conversation would go (in Hebrew):

Me: Windmill Hotel, shalom. Yossi speaking.
Caller (in a sing-song voice): Shalom. This is Mrs Cohen
Me: Shalom, Mrs Cohen
Caller (in a sing-song-voice): Can I speak with Motti, please?
Me: Certainly. Putting you through.

[pause]

Me: Mr Cohen, this is Yossi from Reception. I have your wife on the line.
Mr Cohen (in a sing-song-voice): Thank you, Yossi.

[click]

And I would have the same conversation at about the same time every day. After a while it became tiresome so I thought I would try to have some fun with it. You see, Mrs Cohen's sing-song voice really irked me and as soon as I knew that it was her on the phone, I would mimic her sing-song tone. I'm not sure that she really appreciated it, but I never got in trouble from Mr Cohen over the matter. Perhaps they thought that they managed to convert me to their weird manner of speech.

Anyway, that is the sort of repetitive conversation I'm talking about. Since then I have noticed other such repetitive conversations in my everyday life. You don't normally think about these things, but once you start paying attention, you will be surprised as to how often these repetitive conversations occur. A good example (at least in my world) is calling a taxi (conversation in Hebrew):

Sharet Taxis: Sharet!
Me: Yes, I would like to order a taxi, please.
Sharet: Address?
Me: Lachish 10
Sharet: Fine

[click]

Other examples of such conversations include the 30-second friendly exchange I have each Friday with the aid who helps my daughter off the bus; and the heavily scripted dialogue I have with the cashiers in the supermarket.

If you think about it, though, these types of conversations are really quite efficient. I mean, it takes no effort to know what to say. Unlike an actor who needs to practice, practice, practice, your lines are ingrained into your mind and mouth while the other party knows precisely how to respond - and so the conversation goes smoothly. As soon as you try to change any part of it, you run the risk of loosing any efficiency you might have gained. Here is an example of such an incident. I once needed to call a taxi but the thought of the predictability of the conversation was too painful to bear. I decided to change the script. The conversation ended up going something like this:

Sharet Taxis: Sharet!
Me: Good morning. How are you?
Sharet: [silence...then]Yes, yes, what do you want?
[I wanted to try and order a pizza, just to see how he would react, but I really needed a taxi, so I thought better of it]
Me: Well, I wanted to ask if you can have a taxi pick me up at Lachish 10.
Sharet: Address?
Me:[silence...then] Lachish 10
Sharet: Fine

[click]

Well, that didn't work out so well. I now stick to the tried and true script. But sometimes I feel that I want to just have a different conversation with these people. Why should things be scripted? I like what Scott Adams, author of The Dilbert Blog, once said to the technician after an MRI scan, "I saw this as an opportunity to pursue one of my more obscure hobbies - using sentences that have never before been uttered. I asked, "“Can you ask him to e-mail me a picture of my brain?"” The answer was no. Apparently that'’s a big file. But I enjoyed asking."