Monday Tip: How was your weekend?

Comments

7 responses to “Monday Tip: How was your weekend?”

1. 

   September 4, 2006

   Innovation Zen

   If you want to be interesting you should start by being interested in others.

   The one you mentioned is a simple yet effective way to do it.

   Cheers,
   Daniel
2. 

   September 6, 2006

   Chris G

   Manager : How was your weekend?
   Employee : Not bad. Yours?
   Manager : Pretty good. So have you had a chance to look at item 1?

   This irritates me beyond belief. So while I believe this is good advice, please don’t use it as a “Monday morning checklist item”. It does more harm than good if it’s preceived as insincere. I believe the follow-up questions and genuine interest are key. My experience is most managers care more about “item 1” than they do about the employee’s weekend.
3. 

   September 6, 2006

   Tez

   Great tip, the only shame is that most people who do this have really no interest in really knowing how your weekend was and so we have been conditioned to generally give the same responses. The trick is to show genuine interest to know a little more about someone every time you interact with them. Be curious.
4. 

   September 10, 2006

   Alexander

   Innovation Zen: I’d forgotten that quote. It totally applies here.

   Chris G: Thanks for that, that is an important point. If you’re faking interest by rote, it’s better not to do it.

   This only works when it comes from a real, genuine interest in other people.

   Tez: Exactly! And the thing is that when you ask people about something they care about, what they end up telling you is often very interesting, because they have a passion for it. Be curious, indeed!
5. 

   October 7, 2009

   Scott M

   Oops, Just a additional post here because I forgot to click on the “Notify me” checkbox.
6. 

   April 24, 2012

   RudyM

   Oh god, just what we need, someone encouraging people to ask one of the most annoying work conversation questions ever.

   Some of us are really unhappy and don’t need our faces shoved in the unhappiness of our life outside of work, while we are at work. Please keep your distance.

   And for god’s sake, if we humor you with an answer, please don’t follow up with requests for more information.

   I wish I had an office to disappear into with an actual ongoing work load that would save me from work-as-social-event.
7. 

   April 24, 2012

   RudyM

   “Benign indifference at work” is more than just ok, it’s a beautiful thing.

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