Choosing who to impress.. hm.. it’s a different way to look at it. However, people will be disappointed if they saw something in you and you did not live up to their hopes. You can’t avoid their disappointment unless you get out before they realize you are not what you seem. Though you might be seen as a quitter..

@Elsha, this co-worker doesn’t have the right to be disappointed in Joe, it’s not her job.

If someone has hope for someone else, is that person they have hope in required to live up to their expectations?

Joe is upset that his friend is disappointed in him.

Hope isn’t always used positively either. many evil minded people HOPE others will fail

A horse and jokey also have negative supporters too, so who do they have a contract with, the people who want them to win, or the people who want them to lose? There are disappointed winners and disappointed losers.

Interesting take on hope being used for good or bad. Hope isn’t very helpful if it’s isolated from taking action either. Just to sit and hope will never work. Kind of reminds me of that tricky saying “god only helps those who help themselves.” Anyway, this is a raw ficly. It elicited a pretty strong emotional response from me. I get this person’s frustration— not wanting to let any one down and yet offended and defensive when that happens. It’s a complex feeling. If this happens in a non-working environment, the only people who will confront you with their disappointment are most likely the only people who care about, or love you. So It can be an extremely hard thing to deal with.

This is the reason human beings have the ability to laugh or cry. Dealing with this stuff without such release must have made our little monkey brains explode way back when. (hehe)

this ficlet and the ensuing comments are fascinating. i read it differently, even differently than perhaps 32^2 had intended… clearly, there’s been a breech in ettiquette: it’s not the receptionist’s place to reprimand Joe – but I also didn’t think it was accurate to say that Joe does not care about the receptionist’s opinion either, since he cares enough to cut her down. To me, it was an elegant story on how quickly hurt transforms into anger.

It wasn’t specified that she was a co-worker. :) She could still be his superior. The receptionist is obviously full of herself, though.
Is a person required to live up to someone else’s hopes? nope. But my comment was about their disappointment anyway. It’s not something you can help, not living up to their expectations, but never have I heard a person say, ‘you aren’t allowed to be disappointed that I didn’t reach your ideals’. Usually I hear them say ‘sorry’ and move on.
I know Joe is upset, his boss and friend is disappointed in him, and he snaps at the receptionist. It’s just a different phrasing, one that made me think about her role. Do we really have the ‘right’ to have expectations of others? But we do. We just do.

The best part about a piece of prose like this is that captures (ie, elicits a response) from the reader on a subconscious level. it dances on the fringe of the unspoken societal boundaries, leaving the reader to question his duality of thought.

On one hand, the receptionist doesn’t have “authority” to reprimand, but, on the other hand, since they share a common family structure (ie the workplace), Sue has the right to expect certain behaviors of Joe that is for the common good of the company.

Although you asked it rhetorically, If someone has hope for someone else, is that person they have hope in required to live up to their expectations? , the answer is “yes, they do, if social or moral conventions dictate”, and since this ficly “skirts” some of the details to provoke a response, all we can do is debate it, based on our preconceived societal notions.

Well done and thought provoking.

also congrats on being featured!