Often when you get in a cab, both the driver and the passenger will read the situation before starting a conversation.
Some people immediately put on their headphones lest someone attempt to socialise with them (the horror). Others are perhaps too willing to chat, and may use taxi journeys as an opportunity to have an impromptu therapy session with the cabbie.
However, one Irish taxi driver has made his feelings on socialising in his workplace very clear.
Just had this legend of a taxi driver. 👏 pic.twitter.com/4eOGHCrSNq
— Luke O’Riordan (@luke_oriordan) October 3, 2021
In a note posted on the plastic partition between the driver and the passenger, the taxi driver has asked people not to ask “futile personal quizzes”.
Pre-empting the small talk, he wrote that he is from Ghana, but is now an Irish citizen. “Yes I like it here,” he added.
He added that he has an MBA, and asks people to “show due esteem.”
Posted on Twitter by Luke O’Riordan, the no-nonsense cabbie’s post has gone viral having racked up 165,000 likes and over 11,000 retweets.
The note had Twitter in stitches, and the jokes only continued in the replies:
But if I don't find out he's from Ghana, how am I going to find out if the next person I meet from Ghana knows him, therefore impressing them with my ability to connect everyone, before moving onto who they know from Cork?
— Kate O'Sullivan 🇵🇸 (@KateOSully) October 3, 2021
— Lighthouse Keeper (@Tuskar_rock) October 3, 2021
Most people in customer service hate customers my guy.
— Louise (@holyhobnobs) October 3, 2021
That's my kinda taxi
— Cianan Brennan (@ciananbrennan) October 3, 2021
Some people thought it was rude and didn’t quite understand why the driver wouldn’t want to have a chat with them:
It’s a bit rude to be honest. What’s wrong with asking him where he is from originally (presuming he doesn’t have Irish accent) and whether he likes it here. Having a bit of futile chat is part of what we are.
— kevin (@kevinmichaelw) October 3, 2021
If the your taxi driver wants a conversation, they'll ask you for it. Otherwise, just leave em in peace without your yappin.
— Lighthouse Keeper (@Tuskar_rock) October 3, 2021
Good taxi drivers will engage in idle chit chat if its initiated or keep quiet if the passenger doesn't feel like talking. That sign is rude and starts the trip off on a bad note.
— Fran Larkin (@franerlarkin) October 4, 2021
Others wrote that it could be tiring for the driver to answer the same questions over and over again, especially as there may be racist undertones to questions around citizenship:
So many of these replies are missing the point. It’s not the questions themselves but the tone and insinuation that something come with them as a person of color
— Emily 🍒 (@emmcgoobz) October 3, 2021
You can tell who the white people are that constantly ask POC inappropriate questions by how upset they are by this. “You mean to tell me others find it rude when Inpry and demand information!!”
— Wakanda Shit Is That? (@unemployedfatty) October 4, 2021
All subjects are not acceptable. Someone’s citizenship status is not something people would like to repeat in conversation all day, every day. I think it would be rude and intrusive to ask such questions to someone you don’t even know. Why should YOU be privy to that info anyway?
— Yasemin (@Yasemin0zkan) October 3, 2021
Either way, it’s their car, so their rules.
Headphones on for this journey, then.
