Interview

 

I was working out at the front desk of my library and a patron came in to pick up a book that had only recently been processed. That meant that it was somewhere in the back room, in a bin or on a table, where people working on the phones were preparing requested material. So I went back to look for it.

Two of my co-workers were back there, talking.

Now the thing about these two co-workers is that they are the best interviewers I work with.

I don't mean job interviewers, or anything professionally relevant. I mean social interviewers. Drop by for a chat with either of these two figures and they will ask you excellent leading questions about your weekend, your hobby, your health, or your vacation plans, usually whatever interests you the most at the time. 

Then they will stay for the answer! 

Then they will ask follow up questions!

They could go professional with it.

They must be great at parties.

This makes them quite popular around the library I work at.

So as I hunted for this patron's book through the two bins of hold items back there, and I emptied them on a work table, I was thrilled to get to hear these two have a conversation. "What" I wondered. "Does it sound like when the two best interviewers who work at my library, interview each other?"

I don't know what kind of secrets in the art of conversation I was expecting to discover. It turned out that it simply sounded like two sensible people having a very civilized, back and forth, exchange. One would ask something. Then the other would composedly answer and then ask an engaging question back.

Maybe they were keeping their secrets close to their chests because they knew I was there? 

One day I'll crack their mysterious code.