One thing I didn't account for in the crap shack is all the social interaction. Yes, I expected to meet with a lot more people than I normally do. Managing contractors is a lot of work. Obviously.
What I didn't expect was all my contractors to turn into girlfriends. Yeah.. that's right. Girlfriends. That is actually what I call them now. Mostly because they talk as much or more than girls.
It is sort of worse than having girlfriends, because at least my actual girlfriends talk me into the ground and give me a break for a little while.
Since these guys have worked with us on several jobs now, we've gotten pretty friendly. Which means you talk about wives, kids, grand kids, family problems, etc, etc, etc. A 15 minute work issue can turn into an hour social gathering. And no - they don't get paid more for hanging out. They get paid the same whether it takes them one day or 9 years. Some of them call "just to chat".
Most of the time it isn't a problem. But when I'm overloaded - I just want them to be guys, and grunt as a form of expression. When did men become so chatty anyway?
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I'm telling you, somtimes men can be just as bad as women when it comes to the chatty-chatty. Sarge works in a male domnated field, and lately I would say that the ratio of men to women in his shift is about 5 to 1. They talk, and talk, and talk all night long. Not work talk, but gossip talk, mindless talk. I'll get calls every once in awhile to ask me who the actress on some show is, or some other sort of pop culture trivia. They all watch American Idol faithfully, though to torture them Sarge refuses to put the TV to that show, especially since he loathes it as well. At the Christmas party, Sarge and his guy co-worker were talking about the clothes people were wearing, in that "Can you believe that?" kind of way, it was sort of scary.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have never met a bigger group of gossipers. I always tell him "Have fun at your quilting bee!" whenever he leaves for work.
I had to read your comment three times - because I couldn't believe my eyes.
ReplyDeleteWhat next? Oprah?
All I know is when I was growing up - I wanted men to be more sensitive. But, I still wanted them to be men.
I mean... what kind of crazy cooky world is it when women are complaining about men talking too much?