Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Things at Work that Make me Laugh

My boss keeps lots of really high quality candy in her office for people to eat. People that come by to eat this candy often feel the need to rationalize their snacking to me: "I swear this is my last trip!"..."I only took one this time!"..."It's just to tide me over to lunch!" As though I am on chocolate consumption detail.

There's a guy at my office who A) is loud, and B) loves speakerphone. LOVES speakerphone. And he likes to bellow on speakerphone to his assistant, who sits quite close to me and who I can also hear when she talks on the phone. The result of all this is surround-sound phone conversations, generally about minor details of our job. But it's coming at me from every direction! There is no escape!

The way that we throw stereotypes about international types out with no shame whatsoever. You're probably thinking that it's a horrible thing to laugh at...but really, we have stereotypes for a reason, people. They started somewhere based on the way certain groups act. For instance (related to my job, anyway): Asians=very particular about details, Middle Easterners=very demanding and likely to treat you as their personal secretary/slave, Latin Americans=loud and fun, Eastern Europeans=sometimes surly (especially government workers) and like to drink a lot, particularly vodka. Now these of course do not apply across the board, and I have worked with very lovely people from each of these places. But I find it funny that someone will gripe about a project they're working on, and we always ask where the people are from. "Russia." "Ohhhh."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about Ethiopians that call me at 5:00 pm on a Friday--"Meees Caaaroline, I have no money.."

Anonymous said...

i was going to make about the speakerphone situation...but then i decided that might not be the best idea...but damn, it was funny...in any case foreigners are much more fun than poor people...i miss that job...and my friends...

Anonymous said...

a comment...that is what i was going to make...

Anonymous said...

Fanny packs! I love visitors who attend professional meetings with fanny packs strapped to their waists!

E :)

Stephanie said...

ha ha - I've been in the middle of phone conversations like that. Work is just such an odd place - throwing together random people and making them spend a majority of their awake lives together...weird.