You may have seen the type I’m referring to. The prim, prissy middle-aged woman at work, who has an attitude problem whenever she has to work with younger men, especially groups of young men.
She shows with her sour facial expressions, body language, cold tone of voice, and harsh criticism that she assumes young men are all irresponsible good-for-nothings. She takes it as a given that they’re up to no good.
Whenever the younger men try to communicate something, she fixes them with mouth tightly pursed and a frosty look that seems to say, “Don’t you try any of your nonsense on me, you young ne’er-do-well!”
Have you seen how demoralizing this prejudice can be in a work situation?
And behind her back, everyone makes indecent jokes about what it is she really needs to cure her attitude problem, but isn’t getting.
You are dying to do her, along with your post adolescent buddies, but none of you have figured out how to get her glasses off and hair down, so admit it.
She will continue to torment you because she represents knowledge and power, both of which she rightfully has, by virtue of age.
Invite her out for a pint, and both your attitude issues might be resolved.
Maybe the older woman you are referring to is a bit intimidated by the group of young men. She’s pretty likely aware of your assumptions about her assumptions. I’d wager that she’s likely aware of the sniggering going on behind her back, not having been born yesterday.
Perhaps she knows that there could exist a bit of a chasm between your worldview and hers, and can’t be bothered to try to bridge it. Young men sometimes have the kind of energy that is tiresome to more mature people.
It’s hard to tell without hearing her side of the story.
Well, if nobody else has noticed this, I’m glad that maybe it isn’t a general trend after all. I had noticed enough prim and prissy attitudes that regard everyone around them with hostile suspicion, that I was concerned it was widespread. If those were just isolated cases, it makes me feel that much better about humankind.
With respect to regarding everyone around them with hostile suspicion, it appears that you may be projecting your own attitudes outwards onto others. Our attitudes are often much more obvious to others than we like to think. (It takes some people longer than others to learn this. Some never do.) Perhaps these older women are simply mirroring your own attitude of hostility and suspicion back to you. Just a thought.
