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No reply to 'How are you?


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genericwhitemale

Maybe a dumb question, but if you are talking to someone and lead off with 'how are you?' and they don't reply (and they actually heard you) would you take their silence to mean 'not good'? 

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MilesLeftToGo

I would take it as not good, it reminds me of the 3 forms of communication how you got the response of what is expected, the response of what you were not expecting, and then the 3rd one is the lie. Sometimes its hard for us to communicate and I think them saying nothing at all is an answer of not good.

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Happy Lemming

It is possible that the person dislikes you and doesn't want to acknowledge you.

Was there any other conversation?? (beside the 'How are you?', question)

I remember one job where I disliked one of my co-workers (long story), he came into my office and asked "How are you?".

My response was "Do you have an accounting question?, if not I need to get back to my work." (I was the Controller for this company) I didn't like the guy, didn't like the way he had treated me in the past and wanted nothing to do with him.  I wasn't going to answer his inane question about how I was.

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3 hours ago, genericwhitemale said:

 lead off with 'how are you?' and they don't reply (and they actually heard you) would you take their silence to mean 'not good'? 

"How are you?" Is generally a rhetorical greeting that doesn't require a response. Most people simply say "good, how are you?" 

Is this a co-worker? Someone you have a crush on?

It depends on the context. 

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Its something that requires a creative response,  well if you want to engage with the person

such as  "I am young, broke and gifted "

and well all of a sudden that conversation could go a few places.

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Yes, it’s not good. That person is ignoring you or doesn’t feel it’s appropriate that you’re asking. 

Is this someone new or an ex? 

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If they're busy, that's one thing. But if they're ignoring you, I'd cease communications with them. There's nothing worse than silence. 

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