At first, I thought I was hearing things. I sat at my desk silently, waiting for the sound to come again. After no results, I focused my attention back to my monitor. Just as I started to type, I heard this clicking sound again. Knowing I wasn’t crazy, I peered over my screen to two of my colleagues, who both gave me strange looks. The noise had stopped, so I sat back in my chair and let out a sigh. Someone must’ve been messing with me. As I was reclining, I turned to my right to ask another coworker if he had heard the noise but stopped myself as he innocently turned towards me. I watched as he took a toothpick and floss to his mouth and started picking his teeth!
I work in a small office where everyone is close with each other but come on! Is it appropriate for him to sit at his desk and clean plaque and food particles from his teeth (and I’m not even sure he washes his hands afterwards!)? This really got me thinking: what is appropriate behavior at work and what is appropriate to talk about at work? The small office environment has created a fun and comfortable atmosphere, but in this case, maybe he was too comfortable.
For the next couple of days, I really pondered that idea. A few days before, some of the people on my team and I were playing Pictionary together (outside of work hours, of course!), and I really needed to think of a hard word for someone to draw, a real stumper. A huge grin spread across my face as I wrote the word down and slid the small piece of paper over to my colleague. She read the paper and jumped back. “Ew!” she exclaimed as her face flushed red. I didn’t think “belly button lint” would have invoked that kind of reaction, to which I was surprised. After drawing it on the board and having our team guess it correctly, the ladies in my office spoke to me like I was some kind of monster.
“That is literally so disgusting.” “I think I might vomit. Belly button lint, really?” “What even made you think of that. Don’t you clean yours?” That last accusation felt more like an attack, but I let it slide (and yes, I do). Was that taking it too far? Was having someone draw a funny word during a game at work inappropriate? After doing some research on the topic, I found some great results of how one should conduct him or herself at work.
Most of the results had to do with productivity. Don’t waste hours on social media, don’t whine or complain about anything and don’t disrupt people from doing their work. I realized that there is a fine line to this, because with healthy work friendships, shouldn’t people be able to chat among themselves, maybe even blow off some steam? I totally understand this in big office settings, but what about within small groups? Also, don’t put your phone on anything but silent and please please please use headphones if you are going to listen to music. Not everyone enjoys listening to theater music and musicals, I hate to break it to you.
Politics, personal/family problems and the good old days should be avoided as well, mostly because no one cares (hey, that’s just what I’m reading) or it can spark debates that usually aren’t the friendliest. This makes sense to me, as some people can get really emotional and bring in their drama to the workplace, which no one wants. Talking about sex and body parts (is belly button lint a body part?) shouldn’t really be in the office and neither should be one talking about how popular they are. If there is one thing that no one cares about, it’s your clout.
Bringing in and cooking food with strong odors is frowned upon as well (one of my coworkers needs to read this!). Whoever thought it was a good idea to reheat fish in the office and then bring it to your desk! Curries, reheated fast food (who does that?) and hot dogs also shouldn’t be left at home. Honestly, I can’t think of the last time I’ve eaten a hot dog outside of camping trips. BBQs and when I was a child. No website really mentioned hygienic activities, so maybe that’s just a given.
Reflecting on these things I found that my office does a great job, besides a couple small things. Even I meet the criteria to be an appropriate gentleman in the workplace. My desk may seem messy and sometimes I might forget to turn my mouse off before I go home, but if that’s the worst thing I do, I’d say that I’m in pretty good shape, as long as they don’t choose me to pick the Pictionary topics.
Across The Pond 