In the (don't) know

There was some tension at work yesterday. I work down the hall from the offices in which the tense meetings were taking place. Two employees with cubicles in the middle of the various meetings were asked to take a bit of a break in order to have the tension cleared without an audience. After their allotted break, they came back to my cube. "Are the discussions done yet?" they asked me. "I don't know," I replied. "We don't want to go back yet if the meetings are still in session. Should we go back?" "I don't know." "Can you call down and see if the meetings are still going on?" So I called one of the meeting participants to ask if the meetings were still going on, and left her a voicemail telling her that people didn't know whether to come back. I said that the employees would disappear to the breakroom for ten more minutes. Ten minutes later, they came back to me. "Have you heard whether it's all finished?" they asked. "No. I don't know anything. I told the manager where you were." "Is it over? Can we go back to our desks?" "I don't know." "Is she back in her office? Should we go back to work?" "I don't know." "Well, what should we do?" "I. Don't. Know." They went back to their cubes and didn't talk to me for the remainder of the day. I'm moving to a new location next week, in conjunction with my new job. Ever since I found out that I had the job, folks have been asking me where I would be sitting. For a week and a half, I didn't know. I got an email on Friday letting me know where my space is. I scoped it out today, since I was going to be in the appropriate building all day. One of the part-time temps uses the cube now. "Are you moving into this cubicle?" some of my office-neighbors are asking. "Yes, next Thursday." "Where is Sue moving to?" "I don't know." "Does Barb know she is moving? I think she reports to Barb." "I don't know." "Is there another space available for Sue?" "I don't know." News of my new job is filtering around. People are surprised that I am leaving Boss. "Who is going to support Boss when you leave?" "I don't know. The position has been posted, but I don't know how many people have applied." "Does he have anyone in mind to take your place?" "I don't know. He hasn't mentioned anyone to me." "Is he going to get a temp?" "I don't know." The woman who used to be our Purchasing Agent at work once said to me, "When I met you, I didn't like you because I thought you were a know-it-all. Now I'm glad that you know everything." She's not here anymore, so she can't see how wrong she was. Apparently I don't know a damned thing.