The Silent Man

There is a man in my office who does not speak to me.

Example: When getting coffee in the morning, I will say "Hello" to whomever is next to me. When someone is standing within a two foot radius of your person, I feel their presence should be acknowledged. Everyone in the office responds in kind, if they do not, in fact, say hello first. Except for the Silent Man. I say "Hello," and he says nothing. There is no half-nod, no smile, no indication at all that he has heard me speak.

His behavior extends to hallway run-ins, with direct eye-contact avoided and "Hi"s ignored.

At first I considered the possibility that he might be too important to engage in small talk with me (though is "hi" really considered small talk?) or that he was genuinely hard of hearing.

Then I noticed he would actually go out of his way to engage other underlings in conversation, chatting about this or that, smiling and generally being self-effacing and pleasant.

I also saw him respond to timid "Hi"s with enthusiastic "Hello"s so I concluded it was unlikely that he was partially deaf.

Still I assumed that it was either all in my head or there was a completely valid and non-offensive reason for his behavior.

Then as I was waiting for the elevator last night, Silent Man appeared beside me. Rather than saying "Hi," before we both looked straight ahead and waited for the elevator in silence (per usual company protocol), Silent Man registered my presence, then got down on the floor and tied his shoe for the entire time it took the elevator to make it to our floor.

I am fairly certain it does not take a grown man over a minute to adjust the laces on one brown dress shoe.

His behavior has officially crossed the line from worrisome ("Is it me?") to the truly bizarre ("Freak").

I have already accosted him today with a bright smile and a "Hi." Eventually, he'll have to give in.