Yeah I guess if my family is one that gladly welcomes in little new siblings a few times a year and pampers them and coddles them and then, when it's time for them to get benefits, the big matriarch (at the behest of... um... the government) says we have to run this family on 30% less money than we currently do and then all the happy little children are told that not only can we not have benefits, we are cut out of the fucking family forever, then yes. My workplace is a lot like that.
You have two cute and sarcastic ladies, one young but relatively sane and polite new hire, two crazy British guys plus one crazy Australian who throw stuff at each other and make inappropriate comments until one of the aforementioned sarcastic ladies shut them down, and an awkward boss who has never really gotten over the fact that he was picked on in school and continually tries to be a cool and hip boss and failing miserably.
I should sell this concept to a network. Sara Rue could play me.
@Fashion Police: As a fellow only child, I agree ... but I would make the distinction that I DO think many or most onlies are coddled/overprotected (especially if your mom has been told from the time you were born that it's too dangerous for her to have any more kids! whee!).
I have struggled in previous jobs with feeling threatened by the stereotypical uber-efficient female coworkers, the same age as me, who I perceived to be "competitors". One would think this would mean I had a sister who was always more successful than me, but oddly enough it doesn't. Unless she was the one that never got born.
Totally had the neurotic-oversharey-mom boss, though, at my last job. Trapped beneath her, her sidekick who was directly above me in the food chain (see above) and the prez of the organization who was also momlike but more like the scary brand of mom who you can never, EVER please (maybe more mother-in-law-like?) -- I lasted six months.
I concur. My female supervisor smothers me. My much older female co-worker mothers me. My younger, brother-like co-worker receives the brunt of my frustration. I am generally rather defiant at work and I think that has a lot to do with the restrictions that have been imposed on me ala my childhood. In sum: I'm a nutjob.
I'm an only child, so I can't say that I hate my co-workers because they remind me of an annoying younger sibling. Maybe I hate my co-workers because they remind me of former annoying co-workers?
@CatherineMorland: maybe you just hate the "co" as in "cooperation & diplomacy".
I'm an only child and will admit that I always think my way is the most viable, cost-effective and obvious way available....any dissent is taken with a scowl and muttering underneath my breath Lisa Simpson-style "Stupid, stupid, stupid" he he
@Scout: Yeah, that's sounds pretty accurate. Although I also think that a product of my only child-ness has been a serious lack of competitiveness. I've never played any team sport and just can't ever muster up the energy to even care about a card game. My friend, on the other hand, is one of six girls and she freaks out if you beat her to the top of the stairs.
@CatherineMorland: HA! beat her to the top of the stairs 'tis amusing
Sadly, I have a competitive streak - I guess it comes from years of being alone and telling myself I was the best and brightest, without any real "competition" in the way of siblings. I may treat everyone as "siblings" then. eek
It seems there is always so old woman at the office who hates me. Does this reflect my issues that I had with my Mother as a teen, or is there a constant supply of hateful old ladies who resent younger women? Tough to know for sure.
My work is nothing like my family. Partly because I don't have someone in my family who is a hateful, self-pitying, Cassandra-complex-having, antagonistic, aggressive vortex of negative, bitter energy. (Yeah, I'm literally listening to her bitchin' while I type this...I think I need to go take my lunch break to get away from the noise. Or down some Extra Strength Tylenol.) I don't dislike this woman because I have Mommy issues. I dislike her because she sucks.
I'm the youngest, and I'm terrified of change and getting fired. come to think of it, though, when I was little I was always scared my mom would have another baby and I would be replaced as the favorite. very interesting ...
@Blueberry26: I'm the opposite; I'm the youngest and I love change and while I'm terrified of being fired in this economy, the threat of it is something I never got too bent out of shape over because I thought of it as a chance to be somewhere new and better.
If workplace relationships mirror family relationships, then my family relationship must have been thus:
I was by far the youngest of dozens and dozens of men who sort of act like assholes most of the time, but because I am young and female they mostly spend the day flirting with me and egging me on to see what witty reply I will come up with. Additionally, the parental units trust me with very sensitive documents regarding the fiscal health of the immediate family and all of its friends and everyone with whom it occasionally exchanges written correspondence. My family gets sued a lot. A lot of people give my family money. My family is one of an extremely wide global network of extended families and some branches of the extended family were a little irresponsible when constructing subprime mortgage backed securities while other participated in the unregulated and dangerous CDS market. The combination of these two rogue branches of the family caused us to be purchased by another, bigger family. Somehow my family has clients, and whenever the clients come in to the... house... they ask me what is wrong with the entire extended family, as if I would have direct personal access to our patriarch in New York City or any of our family trading desks. I tell them, I'm sorry, I don't know. I am but the youngest daughter of a dysfunctional male-dominated and cocaine addled industry.
@Sukie in the Graveyard: If what you do is swing from the lower rungs of management at a branch of a retail wealth management office of a large financial services firm, then yes.
@morninggloria: scratch off retail wealth management office and replace with engineering and design firm bent on taking over the world through wind domination and sustainable parks and we're one in the same :)
@morninggloria: You young kids have it easy. I was the oldest. I was chained to my bed until I went to college; youngest sister, they didn't care if she didn't come home for WEEKS.
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I would so fuck Dwight.*
*my husband is out of town and I'm loooooooonely
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You have two cute and sarcastic ladies, one young but relatively sane and polite new hire, two crazy British guys plus one crazy Australian who throw stuff at each other and make inappropriate comments until one of the aforementioned sarcastic ladies shut them down, and an awkward boss who has never really gotten over the fact that he was picked on in school and continually tries to be a cool and hip boss and failing miserably.
I should sell this concept to a network. Sara Rue could play me.
12/04/08
12/04/08
I have struggled in previous jobs with feeling threatened by the stereotypical uber-efficient female coworkers, the same age as me, who I perceived to be "competitors". One would think this would mean I had a sister who was always more successful than me, but oddly enough it doesn't. Unless she was the one that never got born.
Totally had the neurotic-oversharey-mom boss, though, at my last job. Trapped beneath her, her sidekick who was directly above me in the food chain (see above) and the prez of the organization who was also momlike but more like the scary brand of mom who you can never, EVER please (maybe more mother-in-law-like?) -- I lasted six months.
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I'm an only child and will admit that I always think my way is the most viable, cost-effective and obvious way available....any dissent is taken with a scowl and muttering underneath my breath Lisa Simpson-style "Stupid, stupid, stupid" he he
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12/04/08
Sadly, I have a competitive streak - I guess it comes from years of being alone and telling myself I was the best and brightest, without any real "competition" in the way of siblings. I may treat everyone as "siblings" then. eek
but ha ha anyway : )
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I was by far the youngest of dozens and dozens of men who sort of act like assholes most of the time, but because I am young and female they mostly spend the day flirting with me and egging me on to see what witty reply I will come up with. Additionally, the parental units trust me with very sensitive documents regarding the fiscal health of the immediate family and all of its friends and everyone with whom it occasionally exchanges written correspondence. My family gets sued a lot. A lot of people give my family money. My family is one of an extremely wide global network of extended families and some branches of the extended family were a little irresponsible when constructing subprime mortgage backed securities while other participated in the unregulated and dangerous CDS market. The combination of these two rogue branches of the family caused us to be purchased by another, bigger family. Somehow my family has clients, and whenever the clients come in to the... house... they ask me what is wrong with the entire extended family, as if I would have direct personal access to our patriarch in New York City or any of our family trading desks. I tell them, I'm sorry, I don't know. I am but the youngest daughter of a dysfunctional male-dominated and cocaine addled industry.
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Cause, all metaphors aside, you do what I do?
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otherwise - we do the same thing.
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