Working Class

There are aspects of being back in an office everyday that I had forgotten. Like the strange habits of women in these types of settings.

The office where I have been working for the past six weeks is all female. It takes up an entire floor, and the bathrooms are inside the office suite. At one point, there were men there, but they have since moved on, so the men's room is generally useless. Despite the fact that no men are there, only one woman actually goes in there. I went in, but just couldn't bring myself to use it.

The women's restroom is on the opposite side from where all of the offices are. It has two stalls, which makes things very awkward when any one of the six of us are in there. You do not want anyone else to come in. If someone else is already in there, one of us immediately leaves or finds a way to keep busy in order to avoid eye contact. It is unspoken, but generally understood that only one person should be in there at a time. If two people are there, the overlap is very temporary.

I don't think there are any consequences for violating this unspoken rule. But who wants to risk finding out if there are?

Another weird thing is that no one really eats together. The office is so small, and everyone is seemingly on her own work schedule, so lunch is a very individual thing. I have tried to get a feel for the lunch patterns, but I have concluded that it is a solitary thing.

And since no one eats together, the office tends to be very quiet. All of the time. Really quiet.

And women in offices tend to be very weird. In larger offices, there are alliances and cliques, but in a small office, there can only be duets or trios. So far, I am part of a duet. And since the office is so very quiet, she is probably the only person I talk to about anything other than work. She said that she was pretty lonely before I arrived, so that makes me feel pretty good.

I've made a friend. We visit about once every two hours in each others' offices. I look forward to those visits.

I have a dot-org email address again, although I found out about it by accident. Apparently I've had it since my second day. And I have DSL, which means that I can surf the Internet, answer emails, draft documents, and talk on the phone all at the same time. I have a direct phone line, and I probably have voicemail, but I haven't figured out how to use that yet.

Today, I found out that the building where the office is located shuts down at 5:00 and that you need a special key card to simply ride the elevator after that point. Of course, the office does not shut down at 5:00. In an office full of women lawyers, the office never technically shuts down.

I have yet to find the cheapest place for lunch, although I have found one of the best. It is a cafe a block and a half down, but they run out of food by 1:30. The coffee at the sushi place is decent, although there is a Starbucks right across the street. There is a Subway next door, along with a greasy spoon where I can satisfy my cravings for fried food as necessary. There is an open park where I might eat lunch outside one day.

I'm signing off now. I've got to get up early tomorrow...and it is past my bedtime.