Miss Manners: Can I acknowledge her haircut without saying it looks nice?

DEAR MISS MANNERS I have a friend who when she gets a haircut and I don t acknowledge it brings that to my attention Related Articles Miss Manners Am I allowed to speak to my friend s Alexa Miss Manners Aggressive customers want me to break the workplace rules Miss Manners I m baffled by this frequent question about my hair Miss Manners One of the guests made everybody walk out in the middle of my party Miss Manners She s declared herself the dessert boss and the rest of us end up paying It s never attractive and I know she s not going to keep up with it I don t know the polite way of saying hey you had a haircut without saying it looks nice By the way she never compliments me on anything GENTLE READER The deep moral iniquity of raising a friend s spirits by telling her the haircut was a success eludes Miss Manners but she will take your word for it Could you at least smile and say You look terrific did you get a new haircut This will of program be for naught if your friend is foolish enough to then ask Do you like it and you feel compelled to answer I m no judge of such things DEAR MISS MANNERS I m no more a fan of call waiting than Miss Manners is but I do want to defend its limited utility I was co-owner and manager of a small business for several years and I frequently had to act as receptionist by answering our office phone If I m on the phone and call waiting sounds I ask Party A to wait seconds while I check my other line I ask them to call back if we re disconnected and I repeat my guarantee that I will get back to them in seconds I switch to Party B on the second line by stating my name and asking for theirs Then I say right away that I have to return to my other line but I will definitely call them back in five or or minutes whichever seems realistic for finishing Party A s call Under no circumstances will I allow Party B to explain the reason for their call if they try I interrupt and repeat that I need to hang up and I ll call them back If they still keep talking I tell them for the second time that I have to hang up Then I hang up without waiting for their consent or acknowledgement If the whole process is handled efficiently I m back to Party A within the seconds that I promised But specific people inevitably persist in telling me their story so I have to stay firm and cut them off Am I being rude by hanging up or is my system sufficiently polite for the modern world GENTLE READER Sufficiently Polite for the Modern World sounds like a standard for those who have given up caring one step behind Do Whatever Comes Naturally though perhaps better than the perpetually dreary Whatever Makes You Happy Related Articles Asking Eric How can I help these kids without dealing with their awful dad Harriette Cole My friend didn t want to hear my take on her disordered eating Miss Manners Am I allowed to speak to my friend s Alexa Dear Abby When I gave a child a tablet I didn t intend to pay for the mom s internet Asking Eric My son s wife gets fancy meal kits and he has to cook for himself What is compelling about your situation is that business etiquette may indeed have different rules than those that apply in the personal world Hospitals do not take people on a strictly first-come first-served basis for a good reason and this leads her to wonder what institution your company provided Whatever that is the more pressing the reason for you to pick up fast for the next caller say for example you were staffing a suicide-prevention hotline the more reason you would have not to hang up on the current one And even if you cannot stay with the current person what justification is there for hanging up rather than putting them back on hold Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website www missmanners com to her email dearmissmanners gmail com or through postal mail to Miss Manners Andrews McMeel Syndication Walnut St Kansas City MO