Talk Without Speaking

Am working late shift tonight and so showed up to work at 2pm. My ass kills because I am in desperate need of a new bike seat so I emailed Kerry and asked her for advice. She emails me back and says that she?s not allowed to talk to me anymore. I?m, like, WTF. I think she?s joking so I email her back and ask her who I have to kill. She responds, saying that she?s serious. I, having a hard time making the transition to serious and confused as anything, email back asking her if we?re allowed to talk if we should bump into each other in the lunch room. She says ?maybe? and it?s at this point that I?m beginning to twig that something is seriously fucked up.

I see her and Steve leave the office a short while later and so I catch up with them outside. According to Kerry, Sylvia took her aside last night and told her that she shouldn?t/couldn?t talk to me at my desk anymore. More amazingly is that the genesis of this compliant if from Support, not Tech Comm. What the hell is going on here!!?!!? Apparently management talked to Sylvia yesterday and asked her to ask Kerry not to hang out at my desk.

So, I?m storming, and I continue to storm as I march my way into management?s office. According to him, ?multiple people have commented multiple times? about the length of time that Kerry spends at my desk. Apparently some find this distracting (which is entirely laughable to me considering how loud and active our entire department is). It?s even crazier than some should see fit to comment on the ?length? of time that Kerry spends at my desk because a) it?s not a significant amount of time at all and b)I spend more time chatting with other people at my desk such as Jay and no one has complained about that!

The entire thing is just WAY screwed up and I am still trying to make sense of it all. I justifiably fumed and asked management to get Sylvia to back down about this. I am certainly not prepared to plead guilty about this because neither I nor Kerry have done anything wrong. I guess Kerry and I simply need to take other people?s messed up perceptions into consideration as we conduct our friendship.

Very interestingly, I asked management if they thought that this would be an issue if Kerry was a guy and they said it wouldn?t. This sort of infers that people think that there?s something improper going on. Hey, people, if you can?t handle a very happily married guy and a woman being friends then…, well…, I don?t really give a rat?s ass ? it?s your problem and not mine; just mind your own fucking business.

Hmm ? can tell that I have yet to get some some happy understanding place about all of this.