tundranaut
Student
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
- Messages
- 33
Maybe some of you can help me.
I'm baffled today by an encounter at my place of work.
In a nutshell: Long after most people had cleared out of the office, I printed out one or two political pieces by Christopher Hitchens on the office printer, and also a couple of pieces very critical of Hitchens (whom I love) and Sam Harris, who I know very little about. And for fun, I printed out a Jon Ronson story on dog-sledding (all to occupy my attention on my long, boring bus ride home.)
It wasn't a big output --- 15 pages max.
But, during the printing, a middle-aged woman sitting a few seats away from me --- whom I didn't recognize at all; it's a huge office --- printed out a couple of pages of her own (probably some recipe for pie or whatever).
Anyway, she got up to retrieve her items from the printer and I noticed she was sifting through the papers much longer than probably necessary. It seemed like she was examining the items I printed, or perhaps I was just being paranoid.
"Sorry about hogging the printer," I politely offered, which was greeted by icy silence.
After a few more moments, I threw one more "Yeah, sorry" in there for added effect.
Her semi-angry sounding response: "That's OK, I'm not offended by atheists. I finally found my two pages in your 99-page stack."
I was instantly puzzled. "OK," I kindly replied.
See, the pages I printed were diverse enough in viewpoint that, to the average bystander, it would have been unclear as to whether I was a Christian or an atheist. (I'm the latter, by the way, but I enjoy reading dissenting points of view.)
Regardless, the woman scowled at me, icily said "Have fun!" and walked away huffing and puffing (or so it seemed).
Now --- aside from the etiquette issue of keeping the workplace "free" of political/religious discourse that might offend co-workers --- and getting past the notion that you "shouldn't" print personal items on office equipment; I have simply one question for JREFers...
Was this woman a devout Christian who was offended by news articles that simply mention the word atheist? Or...was she an atheist, annoyed that I printed a couple of articles that lashed out against Hitchens, a noted atheist?
The easy answer is to say "Christian!" immediately, but I live in a very liberal city, and the woman could've just as easily been a crusty, hardened atheist. It was impossible to tell where she stood based on her appearance --- she looked like she'd be equally at home at a church bakesale OR standing outside of Walmart screaming about "Stopping! Corporate! Fascism!"
Anyway, give me your take, JREFers.
My judgmental gut feeling is that --- regardless of her "spiritual" persuasion, this woman was simply an angry, lonely, unhappy person looking for any excuse to be a b-i-t-c-h.
But, when I inevitably get reprimanded on Monday for poisoning the workplace with religious and/or political thought, I will be very curious as to where the little wench stands on all of this.
Chime in, por favor.
I'm baffled today by an encounter at my place of work.
In a nutshell: Long after most people had cleared out of the office, I printed out one or two political pieces by Christopher Hitchens on the office printer, and also a couple of pieces very critical of Hitchens (whom I love) and Sam Harris, who I know very little about. And for fun, I printed out a Jon Ronson story on dog-sledding (all to occupy my attention on my long, boring bus ride home.)
It wasn't a big output --- 15 pages max.
But, during the printing, a middle-aged woman sitting a few seats away from me --- whom I didn't recognize at all; it's a huge office --- printed out a couple of pages of her own (probably some recipe for pie or whatever).
Anyway, she got up to retrieve her items from the printer and I noticed she was sifting through the papers much longer than probably necessary. It seemed like she was examining the items I printed, or perhaps I was just being paranoid.
"Sorry about hogging the printer," I politely offered, which was greeted by icy silence.
After a few more moments, I threw one more "Yeah, sorry" in there for added effect.
Her semi-angry sounding response: "That's OK, I'm not offended by atheists. I finally found my two pages in your 99-page stack."
I was instantly puzzled. "OK," I kindly replied.
See, the pages I printed were diverse enough in viewpoint that, to the average bystander, it would have been unclear as to whether I was a Christian or an atheist. (I'm the latter, by the way, but I enjoy reading dissenting points of view.)
Regardless, the woman scowled at me, icily said "Have fun!" and walked away huffing and puffing (or so it seemed).
Now --- aside from the etiquette issue of keeping the workplace "free" of political/religious discourse that might offend co-workers --- and getting past the notion that you "shouldn't" print personal items on office equipment; I have simply one question for JREFers...
Was this woman a devout Christian who was offended by news articles that simply mention the word atheist? Or...was she an atheist, annoyed that I printed a couple of articles that lashed out against Hitchens, a noted atheist?
The easy answer is to say "Christian!" immediately, but I live in a very liberal city, and the woman could've just as easily been a crusty, hardened atheist. It was impossible to tell where she stood based on her appearance --- she looked like she'd be equally at home at a church bakesale OR standing outside of Walmart screaming about "Stopping! Corporate! Fascism!"
Anyway, give me your take, JREFers.
My judgmental gut feeling is that --- regardless of her "spiritual" persuasion, this woman was simply an angry, lonely, unhappy person looking for any excuse to be a b-i-t-c-h.
But, when I inevitably get reprimanded on Monday for poisoning the workplace with religious and/or political thought, I will be very curious as to where the little wench stands on all of this.
Chime in, por favor.
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