Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Office bounding...



I recently took over an office job. Something I hadn't done in a long time but I really needed the extra cash... Yep, turning 30 made me realize that althought I still feel like a teenager, I should definitely get my act together and stop acting like one : which means moving out, on my own, in a real apartment, sleep a bit more, making a heck more money and sticking to a real budget.

So... back to that office job. It surely is different from the music world, that's for sure ! People interaction, for one thing. Hum...

I share an office with 5 other women (that's a lot of estrogen ! ) and a couple of guys passing by from time to time ( one of them happens to be quite a hunk I must say...) I am used to being a chameleon so I made myself fit right in, which was quite easy . Those women are great !! But it is the amount of information that is shared during those office hours that's bothering me. They have no inhibitions.

You have those 2 very nice older ladies ; nothing to say about them. Although they do like to give their five cents quite a lot... Then you have the one that everybody loves to hate : I guess every office needs one of those. You then have the 2 gossipers ; not about office mates but about their celebrities obsession. Nothing wrong with that neither. But one of them happens to be a very loud talker, who enjoys mentioning that she likes eating sausages, in a non-culinary way. Hum... ok ! Then comes the temp. Oh ! boy ! She is a nice girl. But who the hell would mention on their first day of work that their boyfriend did some time in jail for drugs ? Way to go for first impressions !!

I am not used to that kind of work environment. To that kind of office bounding. As a musician, my colleagues also happen to be my real life friends ; that kind of talk would be ok since we've known each other for a very, very long time... So far, I've been pretty quiet about my personal life . I've been pretty evasive and given as less information as possible.

That brings me to my point :

What should be or not be said in an office ?

How much information should be shared ??


6 comments:

Carrie said...

I guess if you worked there longer, you would eventually be friends and then you could talk about whatever.

I have been with my office for 10 years and that is all we do is talk all day but we are family.

I however would NEVER talk about sausage or my man being in jail for drugs.

Michele said hi.

Deb R said...

I'm with you - I'd have to know people much, much better than a brief work relationship before I'd reveal the kind of stuff they're talking about. Yikes! They can just think of you as "the mysterious one."

Here today from Michele's.

carmilevy said...

I'm a strong believer in limiting the interaction between work and home. I often use the term, "TMI". It means too much information, and most folks don't seem to get the concept. They'll just say anything without considering how it will change others' impressions of them.

Wrong on all counts. In order to maintain a professional image, folks have to learn to hold back, if only a bit.

They're co-workers. Not friends.

Michelle said...

I am with Carmi. In order to keep it professional you must act professional. I myself find it a little uncomfortable when people go into discussions about their private lives. There are just some things that you don't care to know. Hope things work out. Here via Michele today.

paula said...

Boy, howdy do I know the pickle of the "high estrogen in a small location"

Counting, me.. there are three women in my office - One is in her mid-forties (the loud, judgmental, rude and overly dramatic Jewish American Princess) the next is 40, backstabbing gossip mongering underhanded and fake-to-your-face.. and then there is me. I'm the one that everyone hates because I tell them both to shut the hell up and deal.

What topics should be off limits? Anything that you wouldn't talk to your boss about... because eventually he'll hear it through the grapevine.

Hola, Michele sent me.

mg

Kara said...

Lord, I work in office...sadly I"M the one who talks all day...lol