Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Cutie? Why not gorgeous?

My boss just remarked on my level of perkiness today. This was in response to me sticking my head in his office all smiley with a "Hiya boss!" on my way down the hall for coffee.

Coffee! With cocoa! Caffeine! And sugar! Clearly I need to sit tight. I do not need a second cup of coffee.

Perk level, I must admit, is rather high lately.

We have this thing at my office called Quiet Time. Like, if you need to not be bugged, you can slide a panel on your name plate aside to show the Quiet Time sign. But it is small and easily overlooked, and so I usually make my own.

Sometimes people respect it, and sometimes people deliberately ignore it. I've occasionally blocked off my cube with a chair with an enormous QUIET TIME sign pinned to it, and people have stood outside my cube with their hands resting on the back of the chair, talking over it to me.

But anyway.

Since Monday I have had a Quiet Time sign - written on paper with big, black marker - stuck to the outside of my cube. Because I need some uninterrupted think time.

So yesterday my boss came by to grab me for a meeting. I've said before that I really like him, and we have a great rapport. We sometimes hang out socially, and even when I say random and shocking things, he often thinks they're funny. He often says equally, if not more, shocking things, and so he'd be the pot calling the kettle if he judged me for it.

He's a couple years older than me, and reminds me a lot of my brother. This makes it so easy for me to relate to him even though we're very different.

So yesterday I was extremely focused on something when he appeared, and didn't actually look up till I heard him speak.

He said, or anyway, what I heard him say, was, "Hi cutie!"

I gave him a look. "Cutie? So. Inappropriate."

And then I gave him a fake simpering smile and said, "But who doesn't love a compliment? So thanks!"

He rolled his eyes at me. He pointed at my sign. "Q. T. Quiet Time. Dork."

Oh. Heh.

10 comments:

  1. Now the question is, is there office flirting going on or simple banter? It's a fine line sometimes but, hey, it can definitely spice up your day!

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  2. No, no, just banter - totally not flirting! He's married and I like his wife, and the quad was around for this conversation.

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  3. Which is why you should change the sign to read, "Gorgeous Time."

    You could put in a second line that says, "Also: leave me alone." But it should eliminate the "cute" ambiguity, although it would kind of clear up the "dork" thing as well.

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  4. At my last job, we had a timesheet system called Time and Attendance, or T & A for short. My first week, someone asked me if I had my "T and A all ready" and then laughed when I answered, "You want to know if I have my tits and ass ready?"

    Weird thing is, I don't even have any tits.

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  5. I would like to work where you work. If only because there's never quiet time (or cutie time, for that matter) at my office... but there is a lot of loud banter on topics that are distracting only because I don't get why they have so little to do and I got to be all multi-tasky :)

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  6. The geek in me reads "QT" and things Quicktime.

    :-(

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  7. I would have done the same thing :)

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  8. I think he just covered himself. He really said cutie.

    I'd put money on it!

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  9. WiB - Ooh! I like "gorgeous time" - I should try it!

    Arjewtino - Hilarious! And no, you don't, but as I recall you said you have access to fantastic ones.

    jess - I'm going to bet you spend a lot more of your time thinking than I do in your job, so you actually really need to quiet/cutie time!

    angeltwin - Glad to hear it! I felt silly.

    DCup - Ha ha! That actually would've been OK, but I don't think he did.

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  10. "Gorgeous" is a compliment generally reserved for those wearing high heeled boots. Sorry, you don't qualify.

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