Nothing Personal
It’s a funny thing when you start a new job. Well perhaps not ‘funny haha’, or, come to think of it ‘funny strange’ either. It’s a normal thing I guess that when someone new starts in a job the co-workers spend much of the first week trying to figure out what you’ve done previous, where you’ve come from and HOW OLD YOU ARE.
The last couple of weeks I have been dodging as many of these personal type questions as possible. Not because I’m some sort of privacy freak - although I can sometimes tend towards that – but rather because being asked personal questions when sitting at a table of about eight people makes me feel very uncomfortable. It’s the shyness thing see. Having a whole pile of eyes staring at me waiting for an answer to what would in a one on one situation be a perfectly natural question makes me feel ill at ease. I stutter, turn red, and speak into my hair.
So at the moment the current bunch of workmates don’t know anything more than the fact that I work in ‘X’ company and I’m in this office for ‘Y’ project. Occasionally they make reference to my accent (which appears to have returned in all it’s drawling glory.) I can see them analysing my answers and trying to figure out just how old I am. I am supposed to be managing a section of this project y’see and I get the feeling they all think I am much younger than they are. (Goat’s blood and yak milk baths = eternal youth)
So anyway I get the whole, ‘whats the new girl like?’ vibe that’s going round. I just don’t necessarily want to be put in the position of answering questions in front of a lot of people. Invariably there is one loud-mouth who picks up on something you may mention and then won’t shut up about it, ever. You could meet this person on the street twenty years from now and they would still remember that one tiny little thing you said.
Whether it’s new schools or new workplace I’ve been the ‘new girl’ so many times. It’s not that I’m ignorant (although some would say that) or that I’m a bitch (and a lot would say that) its quite simply that I hate the sound of my own voice talking about myself (unless I’m drunk in which case I am the most fabulous person you will EVER meet and you should get down on your knees and be thankful I let you into my inner circle of friends.)
For the moment though, let’s take it slow ok? Nothing personal like.
