I keep saying I don't understand other people.
Friday, 19 February 2016 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carose59"Sometimes I Think Life And I Are Going In Opposite Directions!"*
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I've probably mentioned that my inability to keep things neat extends to my cubicle at work. This was an issue at my last evaluation—well, an issue in that it was a convenient excuse to lower my rating and not give me as big a raise.
Anyway, something odd happened the other day. I was working and listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! when someone from one of the other departments in our area came over to talk to me.
I have a couple of book trucks of CDs sitting in my area because there's no place to put them on the shelves at the moment. They're arranged and sitting neatly out of the way.
The rest of the cubicle was pretty cluttered because I was in the middle of repackaging DVDs. (I've been working hard at getting everything straightened up, but not while I'm actually working. And repackaging CDs is a time-consuming process.)
So, this guy from another department comes over and says that he'd been walking by and he wanted to stop to tell me that my cubicle was looking much better. But he'd only seen the CDs and hadn't seen the rest of it, so . . . . And then he kind of trailed off.
And what do you say to that, to someone coming over to tell you something nice and realizing that no, you didn't deserve that—and somehow feeling it necessary to tell you that. Fortunately I have a strange sense of humor, so I was amused by this.
He tried to backpedal—he told me that his cubicle wasn't all that neat either. (I don't care.) He asked me if he'd offended me, and I answered honestly and said he hadn't. I didn't tell him that him being a jerk wasn't offensive, but that didn't mean I didn't think he was being a jerk.
The thing is, I was offended, but not by what he thought I would be. I was offended that he thought his opinion was that important to me. He has this superior attitude that seems very much bound up that idea some men have that women are just waiting for them to come around and praise us. (I've had it verified that he's very much like this with other women.) I barely know this guy; he's not my boss. Why should I care what he thinks of me? I'm quite sure my opinion of him isn't anywhere near as important to him as he thinks his is to me.
*Charlie Brown
-:- -:- -:- -:-
I've probably mentioned that my inability to keep things neat extends to my cubicle at work. This was an issue at my last evaluation—well, an issue in that it was a convenient excuse to lower my rating and not give me as big a raise.
Anyway, something odd happened the other day. I was working and listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! when someone from one of the other departments in our area came over to talk to me.
I have a couple of book trucks of CDs sitting in my area because there's no place to put them on the shelves at the moment. They're arranged and sitting neatly out of the way.
The rest of the cubicle was pretty cluttered because I was in the middle of repackaging DVDs. (I've been working hard at getting everything straightened up, but not while I'm actually working. And repackaging CDs is a time-consuming process.)
So, this guy from another department comes over and says that he'd been walking by and he wanted to stop to tell me that my cubicle was looking much better. But he'd only seen the CDs and hadn't seen the rest of it, so . . . . And then he kind of trailed off.
And what do you say to that, to someone coming over to tell you something nice and realizing that no, you didn't deserve that—and somehow feeling it necessary to tell you that. Fortunately I have a strange sense of humor, so I was amused by this.
He tried to backpedal—he told me that his cubicle wasn't all that neat either. (I don't care.) He asked me if he'd offended me, and I answered honestly and said he hadn't. I didn't tell him that him being a jerk wasn't offensive, but that didn't mean I didn't think he was being a jerk.
The thing is, I was offended, but not by what he thought I would be. I was offended that he thought his opinion was that important to me. He has this superior attitude that seems very much bound up that idea some men have that women are just waiting for them to come around and praise us. (I've had it verified that he's very much like this with other women.) I barely know this guy; he's not my boss. Why should I care what he thinks of me? I'm quite sure my opinion of him isn't anywhere near as important to him as he thinks his is to me.
*Charlie Brown