Things we need words for.

We need a word for the compulsion people have to ask a question they have already received an answer to. Working in a call center this past year has convinced me this is a common enough phenomenon that we need a way to refer to it. I’m sure this conversation happens to people in many lines of work:

Customer: Can you X?

Wage Slave: Sorry, no, I cannot X.

Customer: Okay, but can you just X?

The question is posed again, immediately, in the vain hope that the answer has changed in the intervening 0.8 seconds, as though Xs materialize out of thin air if they’re inquired about enough.

I suggest floux.

Customer: Okay, but can you just X?

Wage Slave: …I just said I couldn’t. I’m sorry.

Customer: Oh, I guess I just flouxed you. Sorry about that. Mind if I scream obscenities at you for a while?

Wage Slave: No, go ahead.

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Unrelated: I never want to go shopping again, ever.