Iron Sky - Space Nazi Steampunk

[Kevin]

Our librarians are stoic, but possess a vast store of politeness. They are asked regularly the dumbest questions on God's green earth.

My personal favorite, while wearing a name badge clearly identifying me as an employee whilst standing behind a desk labelled 'Information' is

"Do you work here?"

To be fair maybe they were used to university libraries where crazy IT people ended up behind the desks at various times. Several years ago when I was still working T2 support, I was working on one of the computer systems behind the information desk, wearing my name badge, that while it did say Information Technology under my name could easily be overlooked as that was pretty small compared to the name and the large university logo that was on all employee name badges. I had patrons ask me questions and I had to refer them to the actual librarians, but at a quick glance I looked like I belonged there. Of course since I had been a student worker in the library for a few years I actually was able to answer some of the questions I got. But I did get a few "Do you work here" questions too.

I also think the "Excuse me, do you work here?" is comfortable way for some people to start a conversation with a stranger in a place of business. I tend to go with the, "Hi, can you help me?" myself, but different strokes for different folks.