Neither flaunt nor patronize.
Miss Manners is pleased to see that you are in no danger of flaunting your expensive possessions. But hiding them suggests that you hold the questionable assumption that they would induce envy in your friends.
Perhaps your friends are pleased at your success, and are also satisfied with their own achievements. Perhaps they have no desire for conspicuously expensive watches, even if they could afford them, when they can see the time on their telephones. Perhaps they have so little interest in status symbols that they do not recognize yours.
In any case, it is patronizing to assume that your possessions cause them discomfort. The only reason Miss Manners can imagine to keep these items out of sight is that you attach so much importance to them that you can’t help swaggering a bit in their presence.
Dear Miss Manners: Is there an appropriate way to address people who treat medical waiting rooms as their personal office space? As I sit here, nervously waiting for my loved one who is having a procedure, trying to keep myself quietly occupied, I have been compelled to listen to other patrons’ work calls — loudly conducted just feet away from me.
My scornful look encouraged one of these callers to at least silence his speakerphone, but I am still a captive, unwilling audience to half of these (sometimes confidential-sounding) calls. Is there a polite way to discourage fellow waiters from such an irritating practice?
Nobody is in a medical waiting room out of choice, Miss Manners reminds you, and the waits are often long. So it is not surprising that people try to use the time — many of them to make up for an unexpected absence from work.
Yes, they may have to be reminded that this is shared space, and they do not have license to annoy others. But please omit the scorn when you do this.
New Miss Manners columns are posted Monday through Saturday on washingtonpost.com/advice. You can send questions to Miss Manners at her website, missmanners.com. You can also follow her @RealMissManners.
