Seen in The Building

There is a joke in the Intel Community (and probably elsewhere) that you can tell an extrovert at NSA because they stare at someone else's shoes.

That is sort of true here at the State Department, with the vast majority of Foreign Service Officers being introverts (you wouldn't think so, right? I thought diplomats would all be people people. Turns out, not so much. Except in Public Diplomacy. Shocking I know).

So since there are so many introverts here, I wasn't surprised when I got on the elevator with my cafeteria sushi to head back to my office to see a woman staring at her shoes.

What suprised me was how she started singing unintelligibly right before her floor.

Of course, that is not my weirdest elevator experience today (what is it with elevators anyway?). This morning, I got on the elevator after my Russian class and there was a normal looking gentleman already on the elevator. As we came to his floor, I started to say have a nice day. But before I could, he stepped to the still-closed door, his nose almost touching it, bared his teeth like and angry dog, and growled at it.

So I just stared at my shoes.

Some People

Some people really need to be brought down a notch.

There seems to be an abundance of such people in "The Building."

I heard a story recently about a guy who got on the elevator and looked around to see if there was anyone he considered important on it. Deciding that none of them were as important as he felt he was, he pushed the reset button so the elevator would only stop on his floor (the 7th floor, of course). He obviously was too important to waste his time letting other people get off at their floors before he got off at his, even though they were on the elevator first.

No one said a word to him, likely because they weren't sure who he was. Maybe he was really high ranking. Maybe he was on a first name basis with the Secretary.

I witnessed this kind of arrogance yesterday.

I was in line at the post office downstairs waiting, like about 6 or 7 other people, for my turn to mail my package. A woman walks in with a Fedex box (note I said the post office, NOT the Fedex drop location). She walks to the front of the line...or almost the front, because the guy at the front of the line was standing just a bit to far to the center of the aisle. So she used her Fedex box TO SHOO HIM out of her way so she could get in front of him in line!

I have no idea who this woman is, but she obviously thinks she is important. And again, no one said a word to her.

She went to the postal clerk and asked about sending her Fedex box, and the clerk began giving her directions to the drop box. The woman interrupted her, and the clerk said, "M'am, this is not Fedex!" and then resumed giving directions to the drop box.

Now had she been a decent human being, she'd have likely been able to accomplish the exact same thing by just saying, "I just need to ask a question. Do you mind if I go next?" I'd have let her go, as I suspect most people would.

But she was clearly too important to be decent.

Seen in "The Building"

Okay, so I thought I'd add a little levity to the blog (actually I have been thinking this for a while, every time I see something (someone) odd in the building. But since I am currently thinking that if I see one more reference to Matthew Hoh as a Foreign Service Officer, or even as a "rising star" or "top diplomat," my head might explode, I think now is a good time to start a semi-regular "Seen in 'The Building'" segment.

The State Department is a not a large agency by, oh, say, DOD standards, but we have a lot of people. I think there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 FSOs, about an equal number of Foreign Service Specialists, and lots and lots of Civil Servants, Foreign Service Nationals and contractors. So you know you are going to get some odd ducks. I know I am not the only person who has shaken her head and thought, "How did THAT person pass the oral assessment?" Like my wife's former boss, who's management style was tasking by post-it note. Speaking to people, not really his strong suit. REALLY not sure how he passed the oral assessment!

Okay, I suppose overseas living can make some normal people nutty. But how do you explain some of the folks that are in "The Building." By "The Building," I refer to the organic entity that most outsides call Main State or the Harry S. Truman Building. Sometimes I imagine that the folks inside are like blood cells navigating through the vessels (cooridors) carrying nutrients (paper) to the brain (the 7th floor). And some of those cells are misshapen!

Like in the elevator not long ago. There was a man, I'd guess by the fact that he was wearing jeans that he was a contractor. He was drinking diet Coke from a 2-liter bottle. But not just drinking. Chugging. For the whole trip.

It went like this: Chug, Chug Chug. Expel air in a hissing sound. BELCH LOUDLY.

Rinse. Repeat.

For the entire trip. Not just one or two floors. Like basement to 6th floor. Over and over. Without taking a break. Like he needed to finish the TWO-LITERS before he got off the elevator.

Lots of burps. Not one "excuse me." No hint of an acknowledgement that there were other people in the elevator.

Yep, some odd ducks in this building.