Gah! Nosy co-workers! So much territory for a rant!
The endless party-go-round - I worked in an office where there was an unspoken minimum contribution of $10 to the parties for engagements, marriages, births, deaths, birthdays, graduations, and so on. There were 40 people in this office, all old/young enough to reproduce. When the “voluntary” contribution reached $50 in one week I said “no more”.
“But you want people to contribute to your party, don’t you?”
Well, let’s see - I came into this job already married (that eliminates two possibilities), I’ve been married 12 years without offspring, so maybe the reproduction events are also not happening, I already have a college degree, so the grad party’s out – unless you folks are giving me a real blow-out of b-day party looks to me like I’m seriously getting the short end of the stick. It’s extortion, and those of us on the bottom end of the salary curve started a boycott. It was just getting out of hand.
Restricted diets - anyone who says "it won’t hurt you, it’s just a little bit… should be subjected to a wasp sting, which won’t hurt since “it’s just a little bit”. I have food allergies. I eat nothing without knowing what’s in it. ESPECIALLY if it’s home-made (I once wound up in an ER because someone forgot to mention one ingredient in homemade stew. In that case, I think it was an honest mistake). The “Go ahead - just try it!” doesn’t cut it. I don’t care if you think I’m a party-pooper or an asshole. You really want to stop a party, you should see what happens when you need to call 911.
And “just tell me what you’re allergic to” doesn’t cut it. Sure, I can say I’m allergic to tomatoes, but unless you’re used to thinking in terms of food allergies it might not occur to you that ketchup is made from tomatoes, that nearly all commercially made beef soup stock contains tomatoes, and so forth.
Other nosiness - I have a co-worker who’s boyfriend of 25 years won’t marry her, who cheats on her (but I guess he thinks it’s OK because they aren’t married). She is convinced every man cheats. One day, when saying how my husband did something nice for me for no reason, she starts in on this. You know, honey, my sex life is NONE of your business, I’m NOT in denial (you are, for letting an asshole use you for two and a half decades) and FUCK OFF.
Last summer I took a couple days off work because my husband was ill. Yes, he’s in 40’s. No, he’s not on Viagra, jokes of that nature are seldome funny. His prostate is none of your concern. No, it’s none of your damn business. I must say, my immediate co-workers were all cool, it was from outside the department I got this. (Actually, I did discuss this with a co-worker who is an MD - but she can also be trusted with confidential info). My boss is extremely cool about this and, while she would inquire as to whether he was feeling better never asked for details.
Lighten’ up.