This New Director Needs To Get With The Times

I work as faculty support staff for the business school of a prestigious university. The school has just hired someone to a newly-created position as our administrative services director. Our department has a meet-and-greet with him soon after he starts, and we’re going around the room telling him our interests and hobbies.

Coworker: “…and I’m really interested in Indian history.”

New Director: “That’s wonderful! You must really love living here; there’s so much of that history around.”

There’s a mortified pause as we all realize he thinks she meant Native American history, but no one can quite bring themselves to correct him, so we just move on. He ended up staying for nearly five years and never improved on that first impression.