Different Crops
Profunksticated is preparing to celebrate Christmas here at home, more than two hours north of the D.C. area. It’s nice to be back home for a few days.
I’ve begun to reflect on life in the workplace and have come to finally realize no matter what a brother does, no matter how civil or nice he tries to be, no matter how good a job he does, there’s always gonna be someone who wants to serve up a nice tall glass of ice-cold Haterade.
The sister (who I’ll call “D”) for whom I’ve been working in this temp gig has told me that others in the office have complained that I talk too much. In one instance, she and I had a long after-hours conversation about writing and other related matters shortly after I started.
D’s boss was in the next office and could hear us. Later during a managers’ meeting she attended, her boss apparently called me out in front of these managers during a conference call — including those in another office — for talking a lot.
D later had to explain to her boss that she staying late waiting for a document, came to my desk and started the convo. And why not, she said. The guy has an interesting background, and after all, it was after hours.
And just a couple of days ago, D came into the office I’m using, closed the door, and told me another manager had said I was again the subject of complaints that I’ve engaged folk in long talks. And they were too nice to tell me “buzz off, I’ve got work to do.”
I wracked my brains trying to figure out who I could have disturbed. The only person I could recall having had a long conversation with was another woman I spoke to on my way out to lunch. But she was only too happy to give me a bunch of details of her personal life, including acting as a stepmom to the son of a former boyfriend years after their breakup.
The upshot, my supervisor told me, was folks likely see me as this temporary consultant being paid by the hour who spends time talking and not doing work. OK, fair enough. But there’s a reason for that. There is currently a lull in the workload. Proposal work has those peaks and valleys.
I’ve addressed that with the manager who brought me in (the Ethiopian guy), telling him I don’t want to be getting paid for doing little work. He tells me I need to be there “in case” some project drops for his team, so in the meantime continue working for D’s team.
So now I know. The pettiness is there no matter where you go. And now especially as a temp, I’ve found I have to deal with folks’ perceptions. Being overly social at work has been a longstanding habit of mine, but I figured nothing was wrong with that as long as the work got done. Still, I’ve been criticized for such behavior in past gigs.
Now I know I must attempt to keep a low profile, and maintain a balance between being friendly, but also staying busy (or appearing to be busy). The funny thing is, I used to take shit like this personally and stew over it, but this time I found myself laughing about it. I even sang under my breath my own version of Stetsasonic’s “Sally Walks:”
Some folk don’t like the way Profunk talks. One-Two-Three- Four-Hit it!
The behavior of folks on most corporate plantations doesn’t change. They just grow different crops.
Peace.
I personally don’t like to talk to my co workers for long. I work with a lot of women and you know how we are. I keep it to a minimum and keep it moving, or I let them do all the talking.
That’s a great strategy, ‘Drops. And yes, I’m working in an office where women are in the majority. And in the latter instance I did let that one person do most of the talking, but I’m thinking that someone else could have been watching/listening and getting mad. That’s OK, I’ll remember now to keep my guard up at all times. Thanks again for visiting.
Peace.
Comment by heartdrops — December 24, 2007 @ 11:51 am
Mgrs swear that they are babysitters and we are children sometimes. Our project mgr said in a meeting recently, “There’s nothing wrong w/ chatting but just be mindful of the folks in the cubicles next to you as some of the clients have been complaining about being disturbed.” WTF ever — we aren’t loud nor are we overly chatty! My team is a contractor working 100% @ the client site. Let me tell you, those clients can be quite chatty & loud but nobody EVER says anything about that.
K., how very well said!! I also recall my manager at my last job criticizing me for disturbing a woman in the next cube while I was trying to order auto insurance for my daughter. Yes I did get a little loud with an agent over the phone, only because I was frustrated with the high cost of the damn insurance. And she had the nerve to bring this up near the end of my performance review!!!
Which would have been fine, I guess, if she hadn’t spent so much time cackling/laughing loudly like an estrogen-injected hen with her buddy at the other end of the cubicle warren. I’m sure she disturbed a bunch of folk too. Her statement pissed me off to no end.
Again, thanks for visiting.
Comment by K. — December 24, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
Somebody is ALWAYS gonna have something to say. And sometimes you gotta watch the “overly friendly” folk who seem ALL too anxious to talk. Cuz they will be the SAME ones who tell you “ohhh SOMEBODY said you talk too much” You betta watch D.
I thought about posting about the boss’ comments on me, but held off. But after the second deal she told me about, I reconsidered and posted as a cautionary tale.
As far as D, I’m not sure she would be someone as you described. But the fact is, I’ll most likely be out of there by February, so I’m really not worrying about it. If I go somewhere else as a “permanent” employee, then I’ll do my level best to keep folk at arm’s length. Have a nice holiday and again, thanks for visiting.
Peace.
Comment by aly cat — December 26, 2007 @ 10:48 pm