Elevator pitch

It's sort of rare for me to actually be in an elevator at work with someone I know, since I try not to leave my floor unless it's absolutely necessary. But when it happens, I find that I really, really have to stretch to make small talk.

At my old company, elevator chit-chat was much easier because when it came down to it, talking about work was talking about clothes. And I get clothes. And I want to know about clothes.

But here, the case is usually that I don't care about/understand what my colleagues are working on. They may go on and on about something very interesting and innovative, but I have no idea what they're talking about. Or I simply don't want to know about the number-crunching that happens when we close a quarter.