Posted on 05/26/2014 5:54:50 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Sitting at a lunch table, my co-worker mentioned she had been up all night with her daughter who was teething. A few minutes later, the conversation around the lunch table turned to a team project. I noticed the group was excluding my co-worker from the discussion, assuming she was too tired to contribute.
That was the first time I realized it was a bad idea for women to talk about their kids and home life at the office.
Career blogger Penelope Trunk believes being your true self at work means taking risks and letting people in the workplace see you for who you are outside the office, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at theledger.com ...
"On her blog she writes: "I have written many posts about how important it is for gay people to come out of the closet at work."
And never SHUT UP about it once they do come out.
I do not mix the two, and I never understand people who treat work as one big social gathering -- "So, on Saturday night, I was out with Denise -- she has that new boyfriend you know -- well, we just got so drunk! When her boyfriend found out ..."
Sorry. I just don't need to hear anything at all in that vein. Let's discuss our 3 o'clock meeting instead: we have still have numbers to crunch.
I don't see this as a man-woman thing or an "I've got kids" thing. You're here to work. You're getting a paycheck. I have an idea -- focus on the work and shut up about the rest.
They are at lunch. Why is someone bringing up a new project? Another reason why I take lunch solo.
If homosexuals are encouraged to come out at work, and not shut up about it, then to me, certainly mothers should feel free to come out of a closet, and talk about their children. Makes sense to me.
I personally would prefer to hear about a mother’s life with her children, rather than hear about a homosexual’s life. That’s just me.
If I talked about my sex habits at work, I’d be written up for creating a “hostile working atmosphere.” But I am straight so the rules are different for me.
I have heard plenty of men talk about their kids at work even being up during the night with them. The author is just an idiot who wants something to complain about. I haven’t seen women treated differently because of talking about their kids.
Some years ago I took a class in human resources management as a college elective, and there were a number of interesting case studies about management styles of the American corporate culture and the Japanese corporate culture. They distinguished the two cultures in five different ways. I forget what all of them were, but I believe one of them was the difference between American companies where executives enjoy special benefits and Japanese companies where the CEO doesn't even get a reserved parking space outside the building.
Anyway ... the case studies and further research suggested that the ideal company took four of the Japanese characteristics and one American characteristics. The one area where the Japanese managerial style was seen as inferior to the American style was the overbearing intrusion of a Japanese employer into the lives of its employees. I think about that every time I overhear a conversation among my employees about their home/personal life. I don't really give a sh!t, dude ... you're here to get a job done.
some people work with personal friends of theirs.
Or, they work somewhere, and make friends with people they work with. IF that happens, then naturally there will be spillover of home life into the workplace. But everyone needs to focus on work when they are “on the clock”, whether you work with personal friends of not.
This self-centered feminista should not be at work talking ABOUT her kids. She should be at home talking TO her kids. The poor kids need her love and attention.
You only want to talk number crunching AT LUNCH? Wow, that’s an attitude that has always made me hate the grey, boring life of office work.
When I worked in offices, I always did lunch solo. Walked around the city, breathed semi-fresh air and even checked into my local church for a quick prayer & a bit of meditation. I returned to the office totally refreshed.
I am with you. Lunch for me was down time. (I’m retired now.) If I was with others I did not want to discuss work. Discussing what was going on in others lives was OK with me. I too would rather take lunch solo rather than it be just one more hour of work.
The discussion about children can easily spiral into a Mommy competition, showing off and bragging about each kid. That excludes non-parents and wears on a lot of guys.
Another risk women fail to appreciate is that always talking about their children at work subtly suggests that they aren’t mentally at work, or less capable professionally because of family responsibilities.
And don’t ever put any queers in your HR department. Next thing you know your company will be overrun by them.
The old guard used to avoid politics and religion at work.
Men talked about guns, guitars, cars, sports, and masculine things. Women talked about recipes, home decor, and feminine things. Both talked about the weather and their kids. Everyone seemed to get along with one another and shared their experiences. There was no confusion in deciding which restroom to use.
Men are not as masculine and woman are not as feminine as they used to be and the roles have changed to the point women are now “kicking ass” and men have become “pussies”. And gays, lesbians, and gender benders are suddenly everywhere in the workplace.
Toss in some political correctness, minority racism, freedom from religion, animal activism (their pets are their children - want to see some pictures - types), and veginism and you have the “progressive” liberal utopian workplace of today.
Express any conservative view supporting GOD, country, and family and you will be on the outside searching for a new job.
If you get an invitation to one of your co-workers same sex marriages, best tell them you have to be out of town that day attending a PETA meeting or something. Just don’t tell them PETA stands for People who Eat Tasty Animals (Hat tip to Ted Nugent).
I am retired and glad to be out of the workplace jungle. Peace.
Excellent post! My choice for post of the day.
Why wouldn’t it be??
I agree. Years ago, I worked with a queer who used to announce he would be seeing his "boyfriend" that night so he needed to pick up some enemas beforehand.
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