7 People You Will See in Every Waiting Room

Waiting rooms are excellent areas for “people watching”. When you spend any amount of time in waiting rooms, no matter where you are, you will start to notice stereotypes of human behavior. This can happen at the barbershop, the oil change place, the car wash, at a restaurant, or at a pharmacy where I work. The similarities are really quite funny once you start to take note. The following examples are from the pharmacy setting but you can find these people everywhere. Here are some people to watch for the next time you find yourself in a waiting room. I hope you get a laugh when you spot one.

1. Cell Phone Talkers

 Cell phone talkers are oblivious to the world around them. They seem to have no idea that others don’t care to hear their conversation. Often these are businessmen and women who must continue to work while running errands. Real estate agents, salesmen, and contractors are always stuck to their phones. Gossipy grandmothers and planner moms love to pick up the phone and get some talking in while waiting on us. Cell phone talkers will sometimes answer the phone while standing at the cash register, proving how little self-awareness they really have. One thing you can be sure of is that cell phone talkers will be over 30 years old. Young people never talk on the phone, they text.

2. Texters

Texters, similar to cell phone talkers, are also oblivious to the world around them, but at least they are quiet. They don’t really bother anyone, just as long as you don’t ask anything of them or need their attention. Texters don’t interrupt their texting for any reason. They will walk around the store with their phones in front of their faces. Texters are prone to injury from running into objects like poles or shelves. Sometimes they walk into traffic unknowingly. If you try to speak to a texter it can be quite maddening. They can only speak between texts and they never make eye contact with you. Getting an intelligent response from them can be a challenge.

3. Watchers

 Watchers are quite the opposite of cell phone talkers. They will sit or stand in the waiting area and watch you work (or just stare at you) until their prescription is ready. Maybe these folks are intrigued by your job, or maybe they think staring you down will make you go faster. I am not sure which is the truth but these patients can be very unsettling. No matter when you glance over, or how many times, they will have eyes locked on you. Sometimes I wish these people had a cell phone to distract them. I have found two ways to combat watchers. A long stare back will usually break the trance that the watcher falls into, a kind of stare-down game of chicken. Who will blink first? The other method is to leave your work and talk to them. They usually don’t want to talk or keep you from your work. If they are staring because they want to ask a question you will be able to help them and move on.

4. Talkers

 Talkers will strike up a conversation with any other person who is around them. Silence makes them uneasy. Some talkers are engaging, interesting people and some are just annoying. Either way, talkers can help you. The interesting talker entertains other patients and distracts them from the fact that they are waiting on you. I often ask this person if I can hire them to sit in the waiting area during rush hour to help entertain the other patients. The annoying talker will either make others less patient, or inspire them to go shopping in other parts of the store. We always try to make sure to have the annoying talker’s medicine ready quickly, so they don’t have time at the counter to annoy us. Watchers do not enjoy talkers of any kind, because talkers distract them from staring down the staff.

5. Snoozers

 Some people will fall asleep any time they are able to sit still and relax for a minute. The pharmacy waiting area is a perfect place to catch a few minutes of shut-eye for snoozers. Snoozers don’t bother anyone unless they start snoring. Some other patients get a laugh at the snoozer’s expense. Sometimes I will move another patient ahead of snoozers, because they won’t know the difference and it will give them a few extra minutes of rest. The big question with a snoozer is what to do when their prescription is ready. Do you wake them up or do you wait until they snap out of it and then call them up to the register? If you do try to wake them up, do you call their name or do you go out and touch their shoulder to gently wake them up? Snoozers usually get a little embarrassed for falling asleep. Snoozers present a dilemma for talkers. It is hard for a talker to sit beside another person and not talk to them.

6. Retirees

 Retirees are usually elderly males who enjoy any reason to get out of the house for a while. They are one of my favorite types of patients. Retirees are the most patient people in the world. They don’t mind if they have to wait, or if they need to come back another day. They let other people go ahead of them in line. These men are truly in no hurry because they don’t have much on their schedule for the day. They are nice to the staff and usually know their names. Joke telling is usually a skill of retirees…we call them “old man jokes” or “dad jokes”. We often hear such classics as “I’m glad I woke up on the right side of the grass today”, or “If I were doing any better there would have to be two of me”. One retiree told me that if I were to drop a couple of pills and then step on them I would be “on drugs”. You have to watch out for retirees, though. Because of their lack of urgency, they can stop down the whole pharmacy. Sometimes retirees turn into snoozers if you leave them waiting for too long.

7. Stressed Parent

 Some parents are stressed when they come to the pharmacy because they are worried about their kid being sick, had to take off work to deal with a doctor visit, or simply just don’t have time to spend at the pharmacy. Their kid won’t sit still and messes with everything. Stressed parent corrects their kid(s) every few seconds in a loud manner. This person elevates the stress level of everyone around them. Cell phone talkers can’t hear their conversation and snoozers can’t sleep. Only retirees are unfazed by stressed parent. It is usually a good idea to give stressed parent some priority and get them out of the waiting area as quickly as you can. Other patients don’t mind and are actually relieved when stressed parent is gone.

These are a few examples of the types of patients we observe in the waiting area every day. If you have other thoughts or examples please put it in a comment or send to me directly. I look forward to hearing from you.