Confessions of a Social Climber

Boo. Let me go on a little rant here, about the men in my workplace. Its funny how, I can see in the faces of the new hires (fresh out of college?) that, they look up to their seniors, because they command respect and get attention from colleagues on-and-off the office.

You’d think attention was such a good thing, but here I am, about to go on the above-mentioned rant: no, I don’t enjoy it, particularly. I mean, as a society, the workplace is still a long ways-off to equality between men and women. My boy once told me that, I work too hard; he finds me attractive, and that, like many attractive people, I do enjoy being beautiful, but would rather be known for my natural merits, like character or skill.

That’s why in school, I worked hard — so what if I won the third prize in the genetic lottery? It didn’t mean I was going to use my looks to go through life.

Here’s a little list of things I’ve experienced in the various workplaces that I’ve been part of.

The Fake Interview From Hell – This happened when I was fresh out of college, less than a month out, and I’ve been saturating job openings with my resume — this meant that, in a week, I would have at least 3-5 interviews lined up, and sometimes, they would be scheduled on the same day – so it was easy to bounce from area to area. In school, we had guests from consulting agencies to teach us what to do in interviews, etc.

And so for my very first real “real” interview, this is what happened. I was sitting in the reception area when this guy in a suit sat beside me. He then asked me, “so, why do you want to work for our company?” I got all nervous, and whimpered, “is this the interview?” He coldly replied that it was, and he was being really, really arrogant and he didn’t even know what position I was applying for! He kept on asking questions until this girl steps in, “Hey! What are you doing with the new applicant?! Stop jerking around!”

It turns out that the guy thought I was cute, and was playing a joke on me. He wasn’t even in the department I was applying for! How mean and unprofessional!

Night Out Bitching – I know, much can be said about men and office politics, but this just disgusted me. It was a Friday night, a major project just got finished, and everyone was feeling the vibe of getting a drink right after work … as early as 3.

Some of our officemates couldn’t make it, and I was stuck with a bunch that I wasn’t particularly close to. It’s surprising, then, for me, to hear what they were talking about — they were criticizing the quirks of my officemates! Then they started talking about which of the girls “they’d hit.” I mean, granted, we weren’t in an office environment, but, are you allowed to make snap judgment on people you JUST work with? I know I can’t do anything for them, but I just stopped tagging along, gossip doesn’t bring anything good in my personal life, and most especially, it won’t do anything for me in the office either.

Unwanted Paparazzo – This is just the worst. See, I have a boyfriend, and, it’s not like I have to let the whole office now, right? (I use it to counter any advances hehe) So there’s this one sweet afternoon that he had a meeting near the office, and he visited me for an afternoon snack! We went to a nearby coffee shop, and, as it turned out, an officemate was also there for a meeting. He took a picture using his PDA, paparazzi-style, and sent it to the office e-mail, (save for mine) when I went in, everyone had this look of malice, as if I was using office breaks to hook up.

The worst part is, I got called in by the big boss about it…

Take note, after the last incident, I didn’t just slink back in my desk, hoping that karma would get them. I reported the truth, using the proper avenues, and the big boss asked the officemates to apologize to me. I’m hoping that I find a way that most of my male officemates would come to respect me as an equal, a human person who goes to work to just get work done. (And here I am being super-nice to the shy IT guy, because at least with him, I could joke around and not get disrespected.)