# I miss insulting coworkers and students...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 18, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061 "2020-04-18T16:36:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061/1 "2020-04-18T16:36:24Z")
I like to think of it more as “Showing respect for my buds by giving them a hard time”… but I’ve got to admit, it’s just fun insulting people.
And that’s what I miss about “going in to work”. People. Who have senses of humor, and thick skins, and will insult me back.
I saw this in a GQ thread:
> [@Did Friends invent the "Could you BE any more \_\_\_"? sarcastic inflection pattern?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-friends-invent-the-could-you-be-any-more-___-sarcastic-inflection-pattern/851283/11):
>
> Have people listened to this SNL sketch from 1998 with Matthew Perry teaching a course on sarcasm?:
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_ZW-AZ2mNeA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZW-AZ2mNeA)
Yes! THIS is what I miss. And why my classes are so much fun (especially for those students who aren’t sobbing).
I’m going to send that clip out to everyone who says “Wow, you must LOVE not having students during the shutdown!” No, I’m a teacher because I _like_ students…(Especially when they come in late, because it says right in the syllabus: “More than 3 minutes late, and I get to call out your fashion choices and have the class make up stories about why you were late.”)
And even staff meetings are less boring in person than on zoom. Making fun of a colleague doesn’t work as well when everyone’s in little Brady Bunch boxes. And apparently, I can’t unleash my rapier-like put-downs on the family and fix it with a high five… (jk, I’ve known that for decades).
Anyone else miss the give-and-take of the workplace?
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061/2 "2020-04-18T16:47:45Z")
Could you _be_ anymore high school?
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061/3 "2020-04-18T18:44:02Z")
[golf clap] Ahhh, see, that’s what I was missing…
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061/4 "2020-04-18T23:01:52Z")
So you _are_ here for the abuse.
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### Author:  [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-insulting-coworkers-and-students/852061/5 "2020-04-19T16:22:57Z")
It’s called banter.
Workplace social interaction. I thoroughly enjoyed it when I was working. Is it high school-ish? Sometimes. But most of the time real work and work-related dialog. When you enjoy your job or the people you work with that social interaction makes the day. And it’s been my experience that we all throw in insults on occasion.
As Khigh Dhiegh, said in _The Manchurian Candidate_ (1962): “With humor, my dear Zilkov! Always with a little humor.”