Let's bitch about our stupid, annoying co-workers

Mike Arnold, the owner of the printing company I used to work for! What a choad. Refused a plea agreement for 18 months (for fraud), went to trial and got 10 years. LOL

EFF YOU ARVELLA

I've been waiting a while for that. Thanks, WmC!

I have to go to a going away party this afternoon. I hate socializing with these people. ugh.

Birthday party girl gave her 2 week notice. So if she does do this party, I don't have to deal with all the drama that will result in me saying no.

I am one of two attorneys that work in this office. We are both in our late 30s, yet people refer to us as "the girls," as in "The girls gave me the message so I didn't listen to my voicemail" or "Did you ask the girls (the complicated legal question requiring specialized knowledge and excellent research skills)?"

This is normally the kind of thing I pipe up about (I notoriously told an old doddering coworker not to call me "hon" and caught shit about it from all quarters because he's old and he doesn't mean anything by it) but the admin, who is my friend and whom I adore, does it all the time and she means it as an endearment and I don't have it in me to explain that by calling us "the girls" it reinforces our status as female helpmeets for my boss, who has very sexist ideas about women's roles in the workplace (basically anyone with boobs was placed at work to serve his whims, regardless of their education, experience, or areas of expertise).

(I notoriously told an old doddering coworker not to call me "hon" and caught shit about it from all quarters because he's old and he doesn't mean anything by it)

The latter was the excuse made for him by everybody else. Personally, I have enough respect for old people to assume they can handle complex concepts like, "This person would prefer I call her by name" rather than smiling and letting them get away with being assholes.

I have a co-worker who also refers to women as "hon" or "sweety". He also refers to me and other youngish co-workers/contractors as "my little buddy". English isn't his first language, and although he generally does fine he often throws slang in somewhat awkwardly, and I think his Sweety's and My Little Buddy's kind of fall into the same category as when he very forcefully throws an "Ain't" into a sentence.

I honestly don't think he means anything negative by it, or realizes it's derogatory, but it can create very uncomfortable situations.

The GM at a restaurant I used to work at took to calling me "Queen Bee" for a while.

"Sweety" and "Hon" et al. seem so outdated to me that I can't believe people still call their colleagues those things. But I'm pretty sheltered. Though my female boss and my male superior (not quite a boss) do occasionally refer to annoying opposing attorneys or opposing parties as "broad" or "bimbo." (Not exactly an excuse, but they do it tongue-in-cheek b/c they are employment lawyers who do a lot of plaintiff side sexual harassment work.)

Part of what rankles me is that I work in a male-dominated area of law that is dominated by condescending fucks so anything that diminishes me professionally is unacceptable to me.

(Somewhat related: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/06/07/are-housewives-to-blame-for-the-plight-of-working-women/ except how the hell is this a SAH wife/mother's fault and not the fault of the asshole who thinks women should get out of the office and back in the kitchen, I have no freaking clue.)

Yeah, I wish articles like that could stick with the relationships and ditch the eagerness to assign blame.

I get the rhetorical use of "blame," but it's really a poor choice for that story or any story where you're actually talking about literal responsibility for something.

there was a dude at my last job who always called me "kid" (i'm 31). i thought it was demeaning at first, but i came to learn that it was totally in character - he was this super-gruff mid-50's new hampshire guy with a bushy mustache who wore short sleeved shirts with ties*, and by the end of working at that shithole, he had become one of my favorite people to work with.

*he was the only one who ever wore a tie - even the CEO wore jeans and polo shirts most days.

he was this super-gruff mid-50's new hampshire guy with a bushy mustache who wore short sleeved shirts with ties*, and by the end of working at that shithole, he had become one of my favorite people to work with.

Holy shit, with the exception of the tie part (he always does wear short sleeves though), this EXACTLY describes the guy at my office that calls the women "hon" and "sweetheart" and is OTT "chivalrous".

I call every one at my work "you kids", but its more of a jibe at myself, for being mostly older than them! (even one of my bosses)

PS I would never call the COO or CEO "you kids" tho. Even tho the CEO is about six months younger than me.

Is saying "kid" as a generic nickname like "buddy" a New England thing? I've known two guys who use it that way, and when ytth mentioned NH, it occurred to me that they were both from MA.

I dunno, maybe. The Sikh fellows who work at the package store I buy my Mexican Coke from call people "boss".

it could very well be... whenever we worked together in person, i was the west coaster in a strange and different land in rural NH, so i'm not sure what was local color and what was personal quirk.

Dude, you've been scraping the bottom of that tupperware bowl for 45 minutes now, I'm pretty sure its empty. Knock it off.

Haha I have a work friend who thankfully sits far, far away from me who eats cereal every morning in what I understand from another work friend is a disgusting and annoying manner (slurping, scraping the bowl). Then she leaves the milky residue on her desk to get stinky throughout the day.

As an opposite corollary to good fences making good neighbors, open floor plans make stupid, annoying coworkers.

open floor plans make stupid, annoying coworkers.

this is 100% otm

Ha, I thought jon's comment was directed at ytth ("scraping the bottom of the bowl" as a "beating a dead horse" replacement), and I could remember what ytth had been saying that got on jon;s nerves.

couldn't remember

Haha, no, it was just a reference to the guy in my office that eats oatmeal every morning with a plastic spoon in a plastic tupperware dish and spends an inordinate amount of time scraping the bottom.

My boss does that, but with a ceramic bowl... clink, clink, scrape, slurp... then the rest of the day, cruching slowly and loudly on rice crackers. Sigh.

I've been sitting in on an open office thing the past couple days, and this thread has made me like super paranoid about my behavior.

The GM at a restaurant I used to work at took to calling me "Queen Bee" for a while.

this is tremendous/fucked up

He wasn't even some 20-something dipshit bro like so many restaurant managers. He was about 40, settled, pretty serious-acting, married w/ kids, and he had money invested in the restaurant. That made it worse.

So I stole a lot.

O______O

attaboy Je55e!

/former LPO, condones employee theft

I've been sitting in on an open office thing the past couple days, and this thread has made me like super paranoid about my behavior.

ditto, esp when i'm snacking/eating at my desk.

My co-worker may or may not have just smacked me on the ass.

OK, she did.

Arg!

that is horrifying but also a little bit funny but also rage-making

Yeah. That's not cool of your coworker.

my coworker told me that i lost my ass when i lost weight and i said oh, great, and she said it was a shame. i didn't even have a good butt, so i don't know what she's on about.

I was bending over to take a picture of something by her desk and she just smacked me! And said - you can't put your butt in my face and not expect me to smack it. NB It wasn't in her face, her back was to me! Then she did it again and I think she realized that was strange cause she got all flustered and was like don't mind me I'm just a smacker!

It was more funny than anything. She's just lucky it was me and not someone else imo. She's sort of bizarre and clueless. This is the same one who told me a couple months ago that my ovaries are shriveling up.

"i'm just a smacker"

right?!

She's just lucky it was me and not someone else imo.

I think this is exactly what I would tell her if I were the smackee -- it would get "that's just not done" across with the option of face-saving if she's smart enough to recognize it.

Yeah. I feel like now it's too late but if she ever does it again then I will. There's a glass partition between us so she just saw me biting my cuticle and said "You know that's a form of self-mutilation and an obsessive habit". I don't even bite my nails anymore it was just the one little piece but anyway SHE IS SO WEIRD.

I'm pretty sure I smacked your ass in NYC! You have a great ass!

NB I smacked a coworker's ass yesterday, but she & I have an understanding.

Yeah but that's different!! WE DON'T HAVE THAT UNDERSTANDING! lol It's fine. I think she's just feeling comfortable with me and is, you know, a smacker. I was a little taken aback though and if she does it again I'll be sure to convey that. Too shocked this time tbh.

Haha, that's fair. I wouldn't do it to anyone I didn't have a very close relationship with!

I wouldn't do it to anyone I didn't have a very close relationship with!

Well now you know that if you do ever do, you can just tell them that you're a smacker.

*smacks rayuela's ass*

Sorry, I'm a smacker!
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3513/3802739304_c45de890ce.jpg

The coworker I share an office with wears noise cancelling headphones a lot, which is great because then I can cough and fart and sigh wearily or sob at my desk and I know I won't bother her. But now she is listening to some kind of on-line lecture thing and she's not wearing the headphones. Why is she not wearing the headphones now when there is something to listen to??!?!?!?