Women at Work

Oy. I just loathe catty women. And believe me, I can tell when they are being catty because, yes, I've been there, done that. I almost expect it from younger women- just out of college, single, trying to prove themselves. But when you've been 'in the world' for a while, married, have a child- it just seems like at that point in your life you'd have a bigger perspective of things and be beyond it. I guess not.

I pretty much hit the job jackpot when I snagged this one. Coming off of 5 months of being at home with my baby, I didn't want to go back to work but had no choice. Right when the unemployment ran out(I had been laid off), I got this job. The pay was what I was asking and the location, not horrible. I work for a good company. Even better is the fact that I work in a specific department within the company that for the most part runs independently. We are in the same office and see and talk to other people in the company but mostly keep to ourselves. There are 10 of us, 2 women. We all get along famously. Its a very family friendly place to work and they are good about rewarding and noticing employee efforts. We enjoy quite a few perks that I would definitely miss if I worked elsewhere.

Back to my point- as a result of the structure of my department, I have limited contact with the rest of the company. There are plenty of women in the rest of the company- some that I enjoy chatting with more than others. Some I simply smile at when we pass in the hall. I guess we all tend to make initial judgments about people and I'm no different. What gets to me is when I think someone is a certain way, then I talk to them and they seem very different- in a good way, mind you. Funny, down to earth, easy to talk to, professional.

Then you hear/see something that makes you grateful you kept that relationship professional. Very dissapointing when women can't work together without having to create 'cliques' and plot against each other. I worked in a place like that once and it was horrible. I'm glad to see this from the outside of the actual situation but I feel for another coworker who is obviously the target.

Can't we all just get along?