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> I knew I was the only poor person at my tech startup because I was the only person who would say hello to the cleaning lady as she meekly made her rounds around us when we worked late. Everyone else had a long habit of ignoring anyone like her.

I hate people that do this. We’re all human and worthy of respect and decency. A simple hello goes a long way.

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I happen to be that sort of people that ignores people at work (whenever possible). That has nothing to do with my attitude/sentiment towards them. It's that being at work, most of the time I'm just absorbed, having something on my mind that I want to pay attention to. In that state I'd rather ignore everything and everyone around me, but I can't. Not answering to greetings from my peers would damage relations with them in the long run (not to mention that that greeting may be just an opener to something actually work related), and not answering to people higher up the chain of management would definitely have negative consequences, so I'm kind of forced to react to them. But then if sometime late the cleaning personnel happen to pass by, looking less like wanting to socialize with those at desks and more like wishing to get their tasks done and be over with, should both of us attempt to pay the time and effort of maintaining a human connection just for the sake of it?

I definitely agree that being mean to the staff (be it cleaning lady, waiter, etc) is a very bad sign of someone's character.

That said, if I were cleaning an office building I don't think I would want everyone chatting me up - just kindly get out of my way when I'm trying to clean something but otherwise I don't see it as rude to not engage with me when I'm doing my job.

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