Office Decorum

I work in a fairly open office plan. Our desks aren’t exactly cubes so much as they’re angles. There’s not a lot of noise control… in fact, there’s none. Typing, ringtones, phone alerts, a LOT of cross-chatter, it’s all there. And unfortunately, I sit next to a team lead, so people are dropping into their desk all the time to chat about work stuff, or just chat about chatty stuff since this colleague is inordinately friendly¹.

Yesterday, another employee higher in the hierarchy stopped by and was socializing with them — most of which I can’t not overhear — this person is married with kids and said, “I always thought I’d work in a ‘professional office’ one day. Where people are hardworking, don’t goof off, don’t tell inappropriate jokes. You know? Professional.”

Then about 30-minutes later I see this same employee off to a meeting with their boss responding, “I don’t know what it’s about, but he told me to grab the K-Y.”

I don’t know which is more disappointing: the irony of their really incredibly stupid and homophobic joke or the fact that, because of the aforementioned open office plan, this “joke” was broadcast to at least 4 or 5 rows of workers. Awesome.

So, yeah… I wear headphones. A lot. 🙄