Women who bring stuffed animals to work

The BBQ Pit
1

Okay, someone please explain this phenomenon to me, because I just don’t understand.

Why are SO many women incapable of doing their jobs without a teddy bear sitting nearby?

I hate, on principle, any and all women who feel the incomprehensible need to stuff their cubicles full of teddy bears and other needless cutesy items. I’m not against making your desk/cubicle/office comfortable. I have no problem with personal items, a picture of your kids or some tchotchke your cousin bought for you in Egypt, or obviously “girly” type things like hand lotion or a calendar with flowers on it- I’m talking about INFANTILE STUFFED TOYS that sit idiotically underneath your monitor like some stupid mascot and practically announce your immaturity and unprofessionalism to the entire office.

This represents, to me, the sort of completely unnecessary frou-frou that keeps the gender divide alive in the workplace. Do men’s cubicles have stuffed toys? Not that I’ve noticed, no. When I walk by a desk and see a stuffed animal, it makes me want to vomit. It looks like a seven-year-old’s workspace. It makes it nigh-impossible for me to respect you as a businesswoman.

I work in the financial industry, as an executive assistant, and I am a little sensitive to the fact that 99.9% of analysts, associates, and managers are men and all the women in the office building are assistants. Personally, I have no desire to become a high-falootin’ financial analyst. I am happy with my well-paying but intellectually-sterile assistant position while I work on my writing in my free time, writing with which I hope to make a dime (or more) someday.

That being said, however, I am resentful when women stereotype themselves as sentimental and unprofessional in such an obvious way as bringing stuffed toys to work. There are male assistants, too. Guess what? Their cubes, sans stupid stuffed animals, look about a million times more polished than the women’s. Stuffed animals look ridiculous. There’s no place for them in a corporate environment. Sure, no one’s going to say anything, but it’s still a little absurd- and, I have to admit, when I walk by a cubicle with a stuffed animal, I imagine that the person it belongs to cannot be very bright, at all, and I dismiss them- and I imagine that this is a reaction that many managers and clients have, as well, to women who somehow come to the conclusion that the daily accompaniment of their favorite stuffed toy is more important to them than the outward appearance of professionalism.

Obviously I am talking about a corporate, somewhat formal work environment. Women who work in a small home-grown office in Montana may have all the stuffed toys they like, what do I care? But an investment bank in midtown, where clients pass through 24-7 in suits and multi-million dollar deals are brokered, and somehow, I seem to be one of the only female assistants who cares enough to keep her desk presentable? And these stuffed-toy afficionado-women are adult women! middle-aged! 30s, 40s! Really. Grow the fuck up!

Nearby stuffed animals make you look like stupid, gum-chewing, nail-filing, stereotypically immature and incompetent “secretaries” instead of legitimate, responsible, and competent office professionals. It embarasses me on your behalf.

I wish I could cartwheel through my entire floor and toss everyone’s stuffed animals into the trash. I hate my gender! That is all.

2

Huh. I could get worked up over women who fail to assert themselves; women who permit others to take credit for their ideas; women who sleep their way to the top instead of doing an honest day’s work for their paycheck. But stuffed animals? Give me a break.

My personal opinion? I don’t give a fuck what’s on your desk. I do give a fuck about how you do your job. My secretary is a pistol. She can do anything (need a writ of habeas corpus ad testificandum? She knows how to get one); she can talk to anyone (clients love her); and she knows the business like no one else. She also has a half dozen stuffed animals on her desk. They amuse her. And guess what? Those of us who are professionals (you might call us “grown ups”) don’t give a rat’s ass. Because she’s good at her job.

Oh, and FYI? I don’t work in some “small home-grown office in Montana” (although, frankly, don’t know why that would deserve your scorn). No one in my office gives a shit about stuffed animals.

Grow the fuck up. Women don’t have to become men to be successful. We can do it on our own terms, sentimentality and all. Anyone that tells you differently needs to shift their paradigm.

And get out of i-banking. They’re all tools.

3

Thought for a moment you were talking about taxidermist stuff there … imagining someone bring in their dear departed Fido.

Looks like Teddy’s gone corporate, though.

4

Well, if they insist on bringing along the teddy bears to meetings or to lunches with clients, or if they pretend it’s Teddy talking when they answer the phone, somebody should definitely put their foot down. :wink:

Otherwise, I confess I really can’t see much essential difference between, say, a teddy bear in a female employee’s cubicle and an autographed baseball in a male employee’s. Or one of those “Newton’s Cradle” thingies or other desktop toys that sprout up in office environments. I don’t really see that a stuffed animal is inherently more childish or less professional than any other type of plaything.

Yes, I agree that a stuffed animal just tends to look more cozy and babyish than a set of swinging steel balls or other more “masculine” desk toys. And I agree that, this still-sexist world being what it is, women in high-powered careers need to pay some attention to that kind of subtle impression. But I think it’s kind of mean to blame the women for this problem. Who gets to decide that desktop toys in steel or leather or plastic look acceptably “professional” while ones in stuffed plush look “stupid” and “unpolished” and “unprofessional” and “immature”? And why, for Og’s sake, should we have to take people’s desk playthings into account when deciding whether they deserve respect as business professionals?

(And no, I have never kept any girly babyish stuffed toys on my own desk. Tysus (the dinosaur) and Homer (the lobster) and Kotick (the seal) and Swanders (the suede armadillo) and Pupsy Rose Lee (the dog), who live in a wicker basket by my bedside, are far too precious to risk bringing them to the office. :))

5

What about these stuffed animals?

6

Male here, and when I worked as a lawyer in a courthouse, down the hall from all the circuit court judges, I kept a few action figures on my desk. Most people found them charming and amusing: Daredevil (a superhero who happens to be an attorney), and the Simpsons courtroom playset with incompetent lawyer Lionel Hutz and a suit-wearing Homer Simpson on the witness stand. Not exactly stuffed animals, not quite the picture of conservative maturity either, but I wasn’t shooting for conservative maturity. The toys were fun and cool and never reflected badly on me in any way.

7

No, they have legos and action figures.

8

The name of the project I’m working on is one of those idiotic acronyms that someone got paid a ridiculous amount to work up. It’s a predatory animal’s name.

So when I joined I was given a stuffed doll :slight_smile: I recommend that the OP not join this team. I took mine home (so did the other woman who works in my room) but right now this room contains 6 of the “team” dolls plus a plush iguana (the daughter of one of the guys gave it to him, for the predator to eat).

PS: The OP must be in a warm location. Hand lotion, yes we got hand lotion. The pots of Neutrogena are all over the place, and they don’t all belong to the 5 women (out of 200 total).

9

Well, I’m a man, and my desk once had a complete set of Muppet Babies Riding Vegetable Cars that McDonald’s had as a promo many years ago. True, my admin assistant got them for me on her frequent trips to McDonald’s, but they were kind of fun to have. Didn’t make me look like a totally work-obsessed geek.

That was a few years and a few jobs ago and I still have them. And they’re still fun.

10

Cubicle decorations - stuffed animals and the like are not keeping the gender divide

We spend so much time at work that I don’t see anything wrong with people personalising their desks. On my desk I have a pirate’s flag, a tiki, 2 photos of my best friend and I. A balloon that is replaced weekly that has a funny face on it my graphic artist draws. Oh and I have a giant blow up penguin looking over me.

FTR. I work for a large internet company, and my desk is put to shame by the Engineer’s desks. They have the coolest toys!

11

I thought the OP meant actual stuffed animals, as in taxidermy, not toys. That would be a bit disturbing.

12

Work for a Linux company, do you?

The mascot at my last company was a small stuffed monkey named Rupert. We used to raid the swag closet and hang Ruperts from the ceiling tiles and such. When we were really bored, we’d lay them out in obscene poses. And it was the smartest group of people I ever worked with.

For stuffed animals I have Feathers McGraw (from The Wrong Trousers), Dogbert, a chameleon (the mascot of SuSE, from the time I spent at their office) and, recently added, a bookworm and an ebola virus.

Does that make me unprofessional?

13

No, it makes you a woman. Or something.

14

I hate stuffed animals. HATE THEM. If you’re over 12 years old, you need to start thinking about moving on. My in-laws collect those fucking Beanie Babies and literally have HUNDREDS of them between the lot of 'em. ALL OVER THEIR HOMES. ARRRGHH!

I have one Valentine bear that my husband gave me, and while the sentiment is sweet, I cannot stand to display it. Which reminds me, I better take it out of hiding for tonight.

From the Kalhoun Family Creepy File: My SIL bought my BIL a stuffed animal that has a recording of a voicemail his wife made shortly before she died. <shudder!>

15

I think the OP must be a pretentious, self-righteous, I’m right/you’re wrong sort of person.

16

I have a ximian monkey. Actually it’s just a lousy little beanie monkey with a ximian t-shirt but hey, it’s dotcom era nostalgia. I’m awfully proud of my ximian monkey.

17

I’m a male, and I have two stuffed anteaters and a gorilla along with assorted porcelain animal figurines from tea boxes at my desk. The gorilla was a gift from our computer tech. One of the motivational speakers we had at our semi-annual company retreat sang the virtues of maintaining a colorful “geekosphere” around out computers. Which reminds me that I also have a green fish, which is a souvenir of another of those retreats. So nongoog, you can get stuffed.

18

My male colleagues keep pressing me to bring in more stuffed animals. I was reluctant to start with them in the first place, because I didn’t want to be seen as too infantile to work, but my male colleagues love them. They don’t want to buy them themselves, but they love them and hold them and move them around capriciously. They name them and act out little scenarios with them.
I wonder what would happen if I took them all home.

19

I have a beanie baby type lizard perched on top of my monitor – no one dares say anything, though, because I’m the boss.

20

I have an elephant and a beer yeast. Both gifts. You know, if you think those aren’t manly, I dare you take either one of them on (real life counterparts, not the stuffed versions)! Didn’t think so…