There’s a manager here at work that has an odd way of addressing people. Typically speaking, if you were to come in to my office with the express purpose of speaking to me, you would say something along the lines of, “Hi Dave,” or “Excuse me, Dave. Gotta minute?”

This manager, though, takes a different path, and says (as walking in to my office), “Oh… hello Dave,” as if he was really on his way to somewhere else, is surprised to find me here, and really has to search through his mind to find something to talk about. But he’s not any of those things, you see, because he gets over his feigned startling and quickly launches into his purpose.

“Oh… hello Dave. I need you to give me the new specs for the…”