Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I Was a Victim of Office Gossip

Office Gossip

I am in love with gossip. I gobble it up, lick the bowl, and then ask for seconds. For the most part this pertains to celebrity gossip. When Heath passed, I was the one to start the Greek chorus of 'oh no!'s through my office. I started a countdown for when Jaime Lynn's baby is going to pop (and another one with bets on when Brit is to going to get preggers again). And the scandalous photos of Miley? I have written on many a discussion board of my opinion on the situation.

My obsession for celebrity gossip, however, has given way to a new fixation -- office gossip. I know it's wrong and not healthy but I just can't help myself...literally. My desk's location is in a hot bed of scandal and too loud chitchat. I have a nice little corner cubicle that is surrounded by corner offices -- the COO, the CEO, the CFO -- and my desk also happens to be kiddy-corner to our human resources/legal department (aka our CAO). In short, I see it all. I have heard the CAO fight with his wife, have heard people get screamed at for shortcomings, and have even seen people get fired.

I've even heard the higher-ups have discussions about me (some good, some not-so-good). But my most recent foray in being a victim of office gossip was laughable so I had to share.

Last week I woke up and my right eye hurt. Upon closer inspection, I realized my right eyelid was significantly larger than my left. Of course I ran running and screaming into WG1's room asking whether she thought I had a tumor in my right eye. She laughed at me, and then handed me some stye ointment. Yes, I had fallen prey to a stye. To make sure my new little friend was gone before the weekend, I decided to forgo my contacts and make-up. Both are things I never do, so obviously this attracted some extra attention from my co-workers.

First thing that morning I corralled two of my work friends to inspect my eye, which is unfortunate normalcy in our everyday routines. The three of us bond over our illnesses (odd, I know). My friend A is a self-proclaimed hypochondriac and D has been having some weird reactions to cheese lately. Anyway, A and D both told me I should enlist The Boss's help confirming if it was a stye or not because she loves pretending she is our mother (which translates to she is very lax about taking sick days).

The Boss confirms I have a stye and has no sympathy for me. And I believe this will be the end of the talk of my stye. Only it isn't. Because rumor of my stye floated around the office and at least three people came up to me before lunch time to offer remedies and housewives' tales of how to get rid of this unwanted bump and I had not told this people about my malady. My stye was the talk of the office. I was Wednesday's office gossip.

This revelation that even something as trivial as a bump on my eye could be circulated around the office made me want to shun idle chitchat altogether. I swore I would be better about gossiping from now on. I would cover my ears when people were called into the CEO's office. I would try not to look into the windows of HR when people were being interviewed for new positions. I would not put my two cents in when we made bets on who would make out at our next holiday party.

I would stop for the sake of styes everywhere.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least people were offering to help you and not making fun of your not so normal eye.

And, doesn't it make you feel cool that people actually take the time to talk about you?

The Alleged Ringleader said...

I love love love office gossip as well!
It seems to me like you are the "go to" person for the office gossip and that means you're in the know and of value to office socialization in my book ;)

It also must have been a slow gossip day for everyone to be talking about the stye. At least you're going to be ok!

<3 J. said...

Oh my goodness I am the worst when it comes to office gossip. And I work with my sister so the two of us together is bad news! We even caught one of our coworkers with his ear up against the door listening to one of our gossip sesh's hahaha And yes, we were talking about him. =X Oops!

Yvonne said...

people love talking about styes. I had it happen to me.

Nachi said...

I LOVE office gossip! I'm with Ringleader though...the office must have been slack in other office gossip if they were talking about your stye. There are far more juicer topics!

At least you didn't have a hot date that night or anything. That definitely would have sucked!

Steph Corwin said...

Oh goodness yes office gossip.. Though things must be slow if your stye is the object. Though by the end of the day, who knows, people may be coming up to you wishing you luck with your stomach tumor or something!

Jackie said...

Ugh I'm so guilty of office gossip! Even when I try not to take part or try to be "good" its impossible to just sit there and bite your tongue when other people are chit chatting about it! Hope your eye is better :)

Anna Routh said...

I am incredibly into office gossip. It's scary and probably very unhealthy, but my boss is a HUGE bitch so I can't help but spread rumors about her...woopsies.

Unknown said...

I have to admit that I don't think I can function without gossip. Mainly because my life is so drama free (thank god) that it stimulates me and gives me something to channel some fun energy into. It's safer to gossip about celebrities anyways instead of hurting someone thats important to you. They know how to deal with it because it's part of their job. At least that's what I tell myself. HAHA.

Working Girl One said...

WG2 - remember when you made fun of me for being "dramatic" about my stye and taking every step to make it go away? Now you know why!