Miss Manners: The women at work ignored me whenever I spoke. What should I have done?

DEAR MISS MANNERS What do you do if you say something pleasant to someone or ask them a question and they totally ignore you Related Articles Miss Manners Can I as the host abandon the rowdy drinkers Miss Manners She won t shut up about how lucky she is and I dread talking to her Miss Manners We were yelled at in a Paris opera house Were we in the wrong Miss Manners Another mother chided me for group-texting a cute photo Was I wrong Miss Manners Can a guest reprimand a dog in its own house I m talking about various situations a cashier or a library clerk but also people I work with I know they hear me but they don t respond I used to work with women who would ignore me at work if I announced anything to them but if they saw me out at a store they would say hi to me Should I have ignored them like they did to me GENTLE READER Deliberately ignoring someone who is speaking to you is a high insult one that is tantamount to severing relations For that very reason it is not something you should strain to see when it was not intended Why would someone insult you at work but then later greet you at the store You can inevitably repeat a greeting to make sure the person heard but Miss Manners cautions that with more casual acquaintances it may be wiser to overlook such slights DEAR MISS MANNERS I have discovered that my husband s small business has been sending out birthday anniversary cards addressed to clients by their first names e g Joe Smith I believe that the envelopes should be addressed using a title Mr Joe Smith I have been informed by my husband and his young receptionist that using the title is too formal and omitting it is friendlier His clients are professionals between the ages of and I believe that the bulk of them were raised during a time of proper etiquette and that my husband not using titles makes his correspondence appear uncouth Am I just being too picky GENTLE READER Mr Joe Smith would be Miss Manners preference But then she would also prefer not to receive birthday cards from her for instance dentist who knows her birthday only from her private physiological records not because he is a friend Now Miss Manners has a question of her own Is this decision being made by the proprietor of the business his wife or the receptionist who proposes to know what everybody is doing these days She is merely curious since the lines between the personal and the professional seem to be particularly blurred at your husband s place of business DEAR MISS MANNERS I have a tremor in my hands worse in my dominant hand and it affects my table manners In constituents I try to choose foods that are relatively easy for me to handle but I often have to make unconventional accommodations such as holding my right hand with my left while eating or putting my chin right over my bowl On occasion if a food proves too tough I ask the restaurant to wrap it up telling them that I am full Then I take it home where I can eat it in whatever manner I choose Related Articles Dear Abby Her teen boyfriend confided to me that he drinks a lot Asking Eric My lazy son-in-law is a lot like me That makes me furious Harriette Cole I was rattled to see my enemy in the group chat for our girls trip Miss Manners Can I as the host abandon the rowdy drinkers Dear Abby How do I keep a houseguest from crawling into my bed But perhaps I should forgo eating in inhabitants altogether GENTLE READER Not on Miss Manners account nor for any rule of etiquette Accommodations for physical necessity are an essential part of good manners Sadly the greatest proof of this lies in the now-rampant misuse of the rule Why do you think we are discovering so a great number of new diseases and allergies every time someone decides they do not want to eat their peas Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website www missmanners com to her email gentlereader missmanners com or through postal mail to Miss Manners Andrews McMeel Syndication Walnut St Kansas City MO