Working in an office with a bunch of women is an interesting experience.
In the past it’s either been retail work, which had plenty of women, or an office populated by men (when I was doing web development work). So when I first got this job I wasn’t sure what to expect. Sure I had heard stories about the sometimes giggling, sometimes bitchyness, often gossipy world of such offices, but surely those stories were exaggerated.
Nope.
It’s amusing when someone comes in, mutters “I’m in a bad mood” and everyone in the office works to stay out of her way. It makes me chuckle to see how easily giggling fits can break out when people are quitely talking in a corner for too long. But it’s the gossip that’s most noticable, and what prompted this post in the first place.
I won’t deny that gossip is sometimes amusing, I share the same human interest in things that are none of my business as everyone. But it’s the extent to which these women go to talk about other people that amazes me. One gets up to go to the rest room, she comes back to someone telling something about someone else and eagerly says “ooh what’d I miss?” Someone walks through the office and the next thing I know it’s some gossip about him. And about each other! I have heard some sort of dirt or snickering comment about everyone else in there, and all that makes me think is “gosh, what do they say about me?”
Being submerged in so much silly gossip is a bit mind-numbing.
Oh, and remember a post a few months back where I talked about the music there? Awful adult contemporary stuff. Well it’s gotten worse, now they listen to a rap/R&B station half the time. The other day it just got to be too much.
“<Co-Worker> can you do me a favor?” I said.
“Sure, what?”
“Change the station please, it’s making my ears bleed.”
As I expected, that brought a few chuckles, but now each time they want to “punish” me (like when they found out I was going on vacation between xmas and new years, and leaving them all there to do work) they change it to that silly rap station. Oh, and they make jokes about my ears bleeding now too.
Luckily the work is good, so I am not driven insane by all this. And I can come home and read.
Read. Lately I’ve been reading Spam Kings, it’s a story about spammers and anti-spammers. It’s interesting to read for “historical” value, I didn’t know much about the history of the spam wars before I picked it up, but most intriguing to me is how it’s written. It’s told as a story, and in it has normal quoted dialog like in a traditional story, but the dialog is lifted from emails, instant messangers, and newsgroups. It’s really surreal. Can you imagine a newsgroup posting of yours, or a part of a journal entry, or something you said in IRC put into print like that? I suppose it was inevitable.
*wanders off to bed*