Ugh- I must be getting cynical

SBmini

A coworker got engaged over the weekend. He proposed on a flight because they met on a plane. Super sweet. This is her first day back from their trip. Myself and others who come in early went over and had a quiet conversation with her with all the details. Obviously we were exciting, but we kept the volume down.

Now that the late people have arrived... however- it's been non stop squealing, awwing, laughing and loud conversation for the past half hour. I guess I'm just an old, cynical married lady now because I'm pretty darn close to taking my laptop and relocating to a less feminine part of the office.

JCbride2015

SBmini said:

A coworker got engaged over the weekend. He proposed on a flight because they met on a plane. Super sweet. This is her first day back from their trip. Myself and others who come in early went over and had a quiet conversation with her with all the details. Obviously we were exciting, but we kept the volume down.

Now that the late people have arrived... however- it's been non stop squealing, awwing, laughing and loud conversation for the past half hour. I guess I'm just an old, cynical married lady now because I'm pretty darn close to taking my laptop and relocating to a less feminine part of the office.

I would be annoyed about the loud conversation too, especially because you tried to keep the volume down earlier.  That's really inconsiderate.

But the bolded rubs me the wrong way for some reason.  It sounds like you are more bothered by this because it's women doing the oohing and aahing.  Like if a group of men was being loud about something, it wouldn't be as annoying.

SBmini

Men would be equally annoying if they were loud. However, they aren't the ones oohing and awwing right now. I'm also just speaking in very general terms about my work environment. The ladies I work by are all chatty cathys who spend a better part of the afternoon gossiping and reading TMZ and whatever. When I go to my quiet part of the office- which happens to be about 80% male because it is where the developers work- 9 times out of 10 they are all working silently. Except for the occasional viral video that gets shared. There's other women in the office who know how to be respectful of others. They just don't work by me. So in short- I'm not anti-woman... I'm anti-these women.

Maggie0829

I have never been a "OMG *squeal*!!!!!!!" person over engagements of babies or weddings or anything else of that sort.  So I guess I have always been a "cynical old married hag" even when I wasn't married

thisismynickname2

We have parts of my office that are large "cube farms", and in the cube farms are normally employees more in their 20-30s, so the squealing en-masse happens quite a bit as people move through various life milestones.  

I feel ya. 

Probably the worst day was when not one but two women got engaged the same weekend. Double the fun! (They also got pregnant and gave birth around the same time too, which sparked many too-public conversations about too-private matters. The joys of cube farms.)

wandajune6

Squealing and endless proposal/wedding stuff annoys me. I don't even like it when it's about my wedding.

I love my office. The area is mostly women and, of the 30+ people in the area, 4 of us are getting married/have gotten married in a 4 month period. And we rarely talk about weddings.

lkristenj

I have the opposite problem at work. It's like a boy's club in here sometimes. I can hear their laughter at the other side of our office suite. Crude jokes and "boy humor" all the time. They can just be downright rude and bullying. Heaven forbid you get in the way of their little jabs. So disrespectful. There is no "quiet" when they get going. Granted, there are only 3 women in the place and we can talk occasionally, but I think we're much more mindful than the "frat boy" types that also work here. What's sad is that one is well over 30 and still acts like he's 21. The others are mid-to-late 20s, and although it's not that great for them to be acting that way it's more understandable for some reason than for a 37-year-old with 2 kids.