I work with a lot of women.
I have never worked with a lot of women.
Monday morning, one of the women did something stupid – tossed her external hard drive with “her life on it” into the bottom of her laptop bag, tossed in her brush, then a protein shake and her shoes. When she got to work, she found the brush had punctured the protein shake (think juice box) and it leaked all over her external drive and her $175 pair of shoes (that was in her best interest that they got destroyed – ick).
The crisis was beyond anything I’d ever seen. She was literally on the verge of tears as we all tried to give her advice on what she needed to do. Is her drive destroyed? Oh yeah. Given how much liquid leaked out of it, it’s a goner. But like I told her, it only needs to spin up once. Her day was ruined – and all day was spent with her relaying the story and getting “poor girls” from everyone. It was way too much drama for a Monday morning.
Today was spent talking about the fall fashion trends. I showed up wearing a dress I have owned for a couple years now. It’s comfortable and versatile. It’s why I bought it. Apparently the color is very “fall fashion”. They spent about 30 minutes going on and on about how I was so fashionable in my grey dress. Then we discussed the grey slacks that one woman had bought last weekend. And the other woman’s grey sweater she bought the weekend before. Oh-My-Gawd! We are all like twins!
Then there are the mini crises that happen daily. Managing a project is like herding cats. You do what you can. But at the end of the day, you are managing the fact they aren’t going to go where you want them to go, so you have to continually correct them. And there is always new information at this point in the project. Shit is being missed. Errors are being found. Processes are being reworked or created for the first time. And then you add in the inevitable changes that normally happen during the course of a long LONG project. Management changes. Business changes. It happens.
These women? They freak out. They dwell on it. They won’t stop talking about it. The venting is epic. And it never ends. I hear the same things over and over and over and over again.
Then we have the continually parties. Every single day they find a reason to celebrate. They know every birthday. They know ever anniversary. They know every single reason to celebrate. There has been a party of some sort ever day. I swear, some of these people rarely work.
I am not used to any of this. I’m used to guys. Want cookies for an afternoon snack? Fuck the party. Go get cookies. Do something stupid? Laugh about it and know that technology can break. Shit happens. Swear about it and move on. Someone looks nice? Say, “you look nice today” and get back to work.
