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Quiet at the office today...
Nov. 3rd, 2004 06:03 pmMy office, for all it's misery caused by the boss, is a pretty politically neutral place to work. We have a very wide range of ages and backgrounds. Nobody talked much about the election before-hand, and nobody talked about it today. No moping, no gloating. Life just went on. That was OK with me today. I've seen politics divide workplaces, and I've seen people harrassed because of their beliefs, I've been harrassed myself, and it makes the workday unnecessarily stressful.
Years ago, I had a temp job at a bull semen processing plant outside of Madison. I ended up working there for eight months, and I learned an awful lot about working with people who have very different values than my own (I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about the bull semen industry, but that's a whole other story! Hoo-Boy!!) On my very first day, I'm sat down next to a woman who says to me: "isn't it great that there are only two counties in Wisconsin where they perform abortions! That's just great! Isn't that great?" Those were the first words out of her mouth, not anything like "Hi" or "I'm Kathy, what's your name" or "here's where you can hang up your coat" or even "let me show you what your job will be." Needless to say, my jaw hit the floor.
The rest of the company was pretty conservative, no-one else took it anywhere NEAR the level of Kathy, but it took some time to get used to. I ended up liking nearly everyone else I worked with. Maybe there is hope for the world if a pro-choice athiest feminist such as myself can work with and be liked by a bunch of fundie republican farmer's wives. Then again, it was twelve years ago, the world was a different place. (Another good thing about working there- those women sure knew how to make delicious things out of rubarb! Yum!)
I needed the job, and I learned to stick to my guns when it counted, and when to shut up, let 'em rant, and know deep down that I was right and they were wrong, dammitt!! So there- HA! No opinions were going to be changed, but we all learned some tolerance. There were some interesting conversations during lunch that never turned ugly. Luckily, Kathy sat somewhere else- nobody could stand her! It was physically impossible for her to have a conversation and not bring up abortion, no matter what the conversation was originally about. We all (even the fundies) had a damn good laugh when her teenage daughter got pregnant....
Anyway, that little rambling on tolerance aside, I'm not saying that we should just happily accept what's going on around here. I'm not happy, with only a few exceptions, nobody I know is happy, in fact most people I know are enraged. I'm just... worried. And sad. What am I going to do about it? I don't know. I don't have money to give to the causes I believe in. I'm not a take-to-the-streets-and-yell kind of person. So many people here today have said things that I completely agree with, but could never have said as well myself. There's no point in my trying to say anything well, all I can do is to listen to all the smart people I know around me, learn as much as I can, form my own opinions, and try to do what's right.
Years ago, I had a temp job at a bull semen processing plant outside of Madison. I ended up working there for eight months, and I learned an awful lot about working with people who have very different values than my own (I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about the bull semen industry, but that's a whole other story! Hoo-Boy!!) On my very first day, I'm sat down next to a woman who says to me: "isn't it great that there are only two counties in Wisconsin where they perform abortions! That's just great! Isn't that great?" Those were the first words out of her mouth, not anything like "Hi" or "I'm Kathy, what's your name" or "here's where you can hang up your coat" or even "let me show you what your job will be." Needless to say, my jaw hit the floor.
The rest of the company was pretty conservative, no-one else took it anywhere NEAR the level of Kathy, but it took some time to get used to. I ended up liking nearly everyone else I worked with. Maybe there is hope for the world if a pro-choice athiest feminist such as myself can work with and be liked by a bunch of fundie republican farmer's wives. Then again, it was twelve years ago, the world was a different place. (Another good thing about working there- those women sure knew how to make delicious things out of rubarb! Yum!)
I needed the job, and I learned to stick to my guns when it counted, and when to shut up, let 'em rant, and know deep down that I was right and they were wrong, dammitt!! So there- HA! No opinions were going to be changed, but we all learned some tolerance. There were some interesting conversations during lunch that never turned ugly. Luckily, Kathy sat somewhere else- nobody could stand her! It was physically impossible for her to have a conversation and not bring up abortion, no matter what the conversation was originally about. We all (even the fundies) had a damn good laugh when her teenage daughter got pregnant....
Anyway, that little rambling on tolerance aside, I'm not saying that we should just happily accept what's going on around here. I'm not happy, with only a few exceptions, nobody I know is happy, in fact most people I know are enraged. I'm just... worried. And sad. What am I going to do about it? I don't know. I don't have money to give to the causes I believe in. I'm not a take-to-the-streets-and-yell kind of person. So many people here today have said things that I completely agree with, but could never have said as well myself. There's no point in my trying to say anything well, all I can do is to listen to all the smart people I know around me, learn as much as I can, form my own opinions, and try to do what's right.
