Anyway, I don’t have a ton of experience living in cubicles – I’ve spent more time in my own office or in an open office where we all sit and look at each other. So, I don’t know how common what I’m experiencing actually is.
There are 2 guys who sit right next to me and they spend a lot of time at their desks (and so do I right now). Well, I can hear both of them on the phone, even though they try to whisper. And I’m not straining to hear them, either. But, apparently, both of them are divorced with kids and remarried now. So, I hear things about “kid free” weekends and pick-up/drop-off plans and all kinds of scary things.
I know divorce is common, and maybe I’m just more sensitive to kids and divorce now that I’m a parent myself, but hearing this stuff just kills me. Those poor kids! Their parents are scheming to get “kid free” weekends and upset when it doesn’t work out. They’re constantly looking at calendars to keep days with their kids straight. And they’re CONSTANTLY on the phone, talking about personal matters. If it’s not kids and their exes, it’s golf and fishing and that beer festival or that political speech on TV last night. Now, you know that I spend my fair share of time at work NOT working, but I think these guys have me beat, by a lot!
All I have to say is that sitting by these guys sure does encourage me to keep things great in my marriage. I can’t imagine going without seeing my kid for days at a time or living without my husband or pushing and pulling kids between us. It makes me sad.
4 comments:
those men sound like horrendous! wanting kid-free weekends? that is just so so so sad. i would have a very difficult time listening to that. i would be fuming. people can be so selfish.
that would be very frustrating. I also hate talk of shuffling kids around like it's a board game, very sad! We just need to continue to fight hard to keep things good, it's worth it!!
I am used to being in the receptionist's chair, so the cube is a little bigger, and open. I worked my last job with an open cube plan. Four of us, in three cubes, and only a short wall to keep us from just chatting all day long.
Tangled webs of broken families. That is sad.
I agree with your last paragraph. Honey Bear is spending the weekend in Memphis and I am here in Alabama, so sad and lonely. But I'll be with daughter and grands later today.
I don't know how productive you can be if you all can hear all that is said and done in the other cubicles. I've always thought I'd hate not being able to see outside, sort of claustophopic. This reminded me of being out shopping or in a restaurant and having someone on their cell talking as if they were alone in their own home. I think it is just plain rude to do this. I wonder if it is a kind of exhibitionalism.
Maybe ear phones would help.
Mama Bear
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