Not Making a Scene

Real Note to Self: Remove MetroCard from wallet before walking really quickly into an unyielding turnstyle.

If you do happen to forget this and walk so quickly that you almost fall over it, avoid eye contact with others, calmly swipe your MetroCard, and disappear.

If you can't avoid looking to see if anybody noticed and realize that a group of surrounding rush hour commuters are staring at you, some laughing out loud and some laughing silently, you should: laugh with them and play down the situation with one of the following comments:

1. "Just one of those days (add a slight 'what can you do?' shrug of the shoulders)."
   
2. Pat the turnstyle like you're patting the back of a horse and say something like, "Yep. Yep. This thing isn't go anywhere." Then procede as if nothing had happened.

Pretending like it never happened definitely seems to work for a certain range of awkward situations. You just have to be mindful to stay in the range. For example, let's say you are running really quickly to catch a train and you see somebody you know right before you go through the turnstyle. As a result, you forget to swipe the card, slam into an unyielding turnstyle, and flip over it. Although, you might feel both stupid and in pain, you should acknowledge it and go for 'Are you o.k.' comments. In fact, you may want to give out a slight shout of pain, hold your legs, or stay down on the ground longer then you have to. You shouldn't stand up right away, dust yourself off, ignore the friend who said hi to you, and walk to your train. If you did, you might seem a little bit weird. Similarly, if you are walking calmly and you mis-swipe your MetroCard once on the scanner, you shouldn't look at the person behind you, point at the turnstyle and say, "Whoa there boy" or "Can never be too sure about this technology?"

At any rate, if you can downplay awkward situations within the right range, you are gold. Below are some situations you might find this advice helpful with:

1. You finish a really good conversation with somebody you just met or only sort of know and say good bye to each other. Then you constantly see each other through out the night. Should you say 'hello' when you see each other again at the event? the second time? the third time? If you happen to make eye contact, should you quickly look away?
   
2. You're walking down the street or hallway with somebody you sort of want to impress. You see a friend or acquaintace walking by and you wave to them and say 'hi', but they keep on walking because they didn't see you.
   
3. You say what you think is a really funny joke and get no response at a speaking engagement. You repeat it again, but with more detail because you thought people didn't understand it the first time, but you get a similarly quiet response again.

Good Luck!

Ed Note: Sheena is at a Business Today Conference. She normally edits out corny, unfunny, and nonsensical parts of my entries.

Posted at November 24, 2003 09:54 PM | TrackBack