Why are people ignoring me now?

Whilst I may not be the most popular person in the world, I never seemed to be short of people greeting me within the circles I normally travel. That is until recently when I have noticed that people are just not greeting me like they used to.

After speaking to them however I found out what the problem was. It wasn’t something I said, or even something I did. It was something that I hadn’t done, that was the problem.

Right before Christmas I went on three weeks leave. Now whenever I have a holiday or even a day off when I am not doing anything, I simply stop shaving. Normally I only have a couple of weeks off and the whiskers are not worth keeping. This time after 3 weeks they didn’t look too bad so I have kept them on for a while.

So now after a month back at work I have forgotten that I have only just regrown a beard and that most people I know around here, have never seen me with a beard before and so they simply don’t recognise me until I speak to them. Where before they would greet me now I have to wait until recognition sets in.

I was delivering some stationary to a business where one of the daughters of one of my work mates work. Walking to reception I walked past her office and greeted her with my special sense of humour and she responded quite differently to previously. At first I thought she must have just been busy and preoccupied, but apparently not so. As she later rang her father and had him apologise for her, as she had simple not recognised me with the beard, until after I had left.

Now you may not have grown a beard but maybe you have changed a little since people first came to know you. Maybe they no longer recognise you as the person they remember. If so don’t be offended if they are slower to respond to you than you think they should. Give them time to get to know you again. Instead of waiting for them to make the initial approach like they used to, you start doing so. There may well be deeper problems at issue that you may need to resolve but more often than not there is no major problem or rebuff intended. So don't be quick to jump to conclusions but always make the effort to greet others first rather than wait for them to make the first move. Over to you: Walter