Multiwhateverism in the workplace.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Although I have worked at my current job for five years now, it really struck me today what a wonderful variety of people we have employed there.

There’s Aussies and Poms and Irish and Kiwis and Japanese and Vietnamese and Indians, Canadians and Israelis and even a token Yankee at the moment! They’re black and white and every colour in between.

There’s kids from the age of 17 right up to ancient people like myself. There used to be a lady of 84 working there until fairly recently, but she went quite mad and they had to shoot her. :wink:

The boss is an orthodox Jewish bloke and there are a number of other Jewish people of varying degrees of orthodoxy. There’s also born-again Christians, practicing and lapsed Catholics, serious Pagans, a couple of Buddhists, a goth or two and quite a few stark-raving atheists. There’s alcoholics, dope-smokers, heroin addicts, meth freaks and health-food/fitness nutters. There’s big, fat people, and skinny little anorexics with whiny voices. We’ve got old rockers and young punks and operatic singers in our midst.

There’s lots of gay men of varying degrees of ‘poofterism’, and even more lesbians (same, except ‘butchism’ I guess), and quite a few people who have no idea what the hell they are. We also have a transexual (not sure whether pre or post op) and single mums, single dads, people desperately looking for partners, and others trying to avoid any sort of social contact.

We have students, even PhD’s of economics, psychology and medicine, and we have folks who can barely write their name without crossing out the mistakes (mind you, I have noticed that the above are not mutually exclusive). :smiley:

There’s nice people and funny people, and there’s also some who you think should be reported to whatever agency deals with complete and utter freaks who will probably attack someone with a chainsaw one day. Yup, we’re an equal opportunity workplace…we employ all those who would be bloody certifiably insane anywhere else!! :smiley:

But I do love the multiwhateverism policy of my job. I love that my boss, regardless of his religious beliefs, is open-minded enough to welcome anybody into the fold regardless of their race, colour, religion, gender-identity, sexuality, substance-issues, education, or mental-health status.

:smiley:

2

What the hell job do you do?!?

3

Two questions:

what’s a pom?
where do I sign up?

4

A “pom” is British, if I’m understanding correctly. Not sure of the derivation.

5

Shhhh…don’t tell anybody, but I work in a telefundraising centre for charities.

:wink:

6

“Pom” is short for “Pommy,” and is Aussie slang for a Brit. There’s no concrete etymology, but some ideas are presented here.

My workplace is somewhat diverse. The owners is German with an accent to match. His son, though of German descent, was definitely born here, or at least came over at a very young age. Other than that, we have one Newfoundland transplant (though part of Canada, Newfoundland is sort of in a world by itself anyway), one Indian (the India-born variety, not the Native type), one Jamaican, and one Japanese, all of whom are ex-pats of their native lands. The rest of us are all cake eaters.

7

Okay, now what’s a cake eater?

8

We have a Californian out back.

9

Smart - even the best ideas have their limits.

10

As the token Yank in my office, I thank you for noticing. And not correcting me when I say gas instead of petrol. :smiley:

Cheers,
G

11

I have only heard it being used by the Italian and Portugese community, in regards to anglo wasp Canadians, and probably by extension Americans. The actual phrase is MangaCake , the spelling is probably wrong and you sorta miss the verbal inflection.

Basically it translated into eater of cake, and the reason for the use of the phrase you would have to ask one of the resident dons or porks

Declan

12

Probably MangiaCake then.

The attractive women in the office are in all sizes, shapes and colours. Yes I like multi-whatsit. Threaten it and I’ll bristle.

13

Forgot who it was or what thread I saw it in, but just the other day I saw an American here correct somebody who’d used ‘gas’. I was quite surprised. It’s never bothered me in the slightest.

14

Eh, I have to get money from my boss when I go out to see clients to cover my petrol expenses and parking.

When I was newly off the boat, I tried this:

I asked for money for my mileage, to blank stares and sniggers. “Bloody Yank” was heard to be muttered, though with a smile.

So I tried out the word kilometreage, but that didn’t sound right, and I suspect I made up a word. But, its a fun word to say, you should try it! And people sniggered louder, followed by mild but audible guffaws.

Then I tried asking for gas money. More sniggers.

So I got petty cash all by myself, THEN handed the chit to my boss to sign. :smiley:

Now its sort of an office joke. Plus, my Aussie husband thinks its heaps of fun to ask me why I’d put LPG in a petrol buring car. I love him, but he’s a dork sometimes. :wink:

Cheers,
G