Uncomfortable

Today was a long day, and the end of a hard week. We’re pushing to get the new site ready for prime time at the end of the month, and I won’t be surprised if we don’t have to do a few of the traditional all-nighters towards the end in order to make the go-live date. But I did fly through a lot of work today.

It wasn’t made easier or more pleasant by the people around me in the large, open-plan office, who evidently do no work on Fridays. (It’s very weird for me to not work as part of an IT or web team – these people are all brand managers, marketing people and so on.) Picture half of a large room, sixteen people or so, all women, all shrieking/screaming with laughter, having loud personal conversations, letting their annoying mobiles ring for ages, and screaming at each other. All. Day. Long. The conversations are the kind that make men cringe: what are you wearing tonight, I’m having shoe dilemmas, she’s hurting my feelings, didn’t invite me to her party, the bitch was wearing the same dress at the club, he’s hot, I told him I didn’t want to go too fast…mindless drivel at full volume.

At one point I caught myself writing “they’re JUST A BUNCH OF SCREAMING WOMEN,” and I had to stop. I felt traitorous. That’s the way that men talk about women, and we shouldn’t talk that way about each other. But then…shouldn’t we be better than that? If someone runs their mouth at maximum speed and volume all fricking day long, shouldn’t at least a few semi-intelligent or half-way interesting comments be heard along with all the noise?

I’m probably being cruel and insensitive. But I tell you, I would much rather be part of the most inane, stereotypical, geekboi conversation (“If Eric Draven was fighting Woverine, who would win?”) rather than a day-long, running commentary on whether someone should wait for a guy she just met who just went off to Iraq; she doesn’t really want to date him, but maybe she should officially be his girlfriend so that he feels better about being over there, blahblahblah. Hours of this.

And personally, I think Eric would kick his ass.