I was passing through the front desk area and saw that a patron with a small stack of books was standing there looking frustrated while both my colleagues were helping other people, so I approached her and said "Hi, ma'am, is there anything I can help you with?" The patron responded, "No, you can't help me. Every time I ask you a question, you just go into library mode and I can't understand. You people need to understand that other people aren't in that mode."
Me: "I'm so sorry about that, are you sure I can't try to help you?"
Patron (continuing as though she hasn't heard me): Everywhere I go, they go into grocery store mode, or bank mode, or library mode...it's no good, I am not in that mode.
Me:...
Patron: [leaves her stuff on the counter and walks out of the building, still muttering in frustration.]
Me to coworker: Did you help that lady? Do you know what she was upset about?
Coworker: Yeah, she said she wanted to take those books home so I said 'Okay, you want to check them out? I can help you with that in just a minute' and that's when she got mad.
Apparently "check out" was too jargon-y for this patron.
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