Dudes at Work

I'm back at work. Same company, different job, different branch office. This time, an almost all male office. I was wondering what it might be like to work between all of that testosterone, since historically I've worked in an office with mostly women. I've been fortunate in that there wasn't too much gossip or drama amongst all of those women, but was expecting to see even less of that with these dudes.

 

Nope.

 

They gossip all right. A lot. The difference? Dudes don't whisper. They talk about each other and they don't care if the person they are talking about is standing right outside my office! This puts me in a strange position because when you're listening to somebody talk about somebody else it makes you an accomplice to the gossip and I sure don't want to be involved in the loud kind! Don't get me wrong: I love the whispery kind.

 

Some of the other differences I've noticed:

 

Fantasy Basketball: Our office has a flatscreen TV that is usually on some financial news updates channel but now it's on basketball. I'm all up in it. Not really. But I did make my picks and it wasn't that hard, guys. You just pick the name of the team based on your enjoyment of the spelling of that team (go Gonzaga!). After the first day, five of my six picks ended up moving up in the bracket. I got a little cocky about that (I couldn't help it) but then my luck seemed to run out. I'm now ranked 22 out of 38 of us. I was really hoping to take it all.

 

Crying: I got a little teary the other day while listening to a Leonard Cohen song as one is wont to do, and put it on repeat as one is also wont to do and then I had to cut it out because you don't really want dudes to see you crying and right away assume you have your period.

 

The Gym: Everybody goes. Everybody. It helps that we have a Lifetime Fitness exactly 300 yards away from our office. The other day I had a free personal trainer session, and the man was sticking his fingers in my stomach to touch my spine and I was hoping not to fart and every time I looked up there was another dude from my office doing sit-ups ten feet away.

 

Lunch: Hardly anybody brings a lunch and they all go out in groups and we have all these great restaurants nearby so on any given day you can go with these guys to that place or those guys to that other place. So far I have just brought my lunch (nerd) but I'm dreaming big.

 

Fridays: Everybody leaves at 3:00 on Fridays! I haven't yet but that's gonna be fun this summer.

 

 

Just one of the guys.

 

 

So far I don't think any of my coworkers know that by night I'm a bookie and I also write this dumb blog, so I'll leave my observations there in this sterile and generic place.