The clerk checking the stockroom is doing work you cannot judge from the empty doorway.

Waiting in front of an empty counter is a poor vantage point for assessing anybody. From out here it looks like nothing is happening; back there someone is climbing a ladder, moving three boxes, checking a code that does not match. The gap between what you can see and what is being done is exactly where impatience grows.

Give the person the benefit of the unseen minutes, and say thank you when they come back with an answer either way. If you have to complain, complain about the system rather than the individual holding it together. Most of the frustrating waits belong to somebody’s understaffed afternoon.