By Theresa
Now that I am back at the cube farm full-time and counting down the days until my next maternity leave, I am starting to notice the various Office Types that seem to sneak into every office. Here is my list of the top 5 Annoying Office Personalities. Hope you enjoy and/or cringe!
The Hoverer
For some reason hoverers tend to flock to me like bees to honey. Maybe it’s because they sense that I don’t have the heart to tell them to buzz off. The Hoverer is akin to the house guest that outstays his welcome; the visit would have been pleasant if only he would know when to leave. The worst type of hoverer is the type that stands there silently while staring at your computer screen to see what you are doing. I finally had to tell my Hoverer in a half-joking way, “Dude, you’re hovering.”
By Theresa
As a twentysomething woman, girls in my generation were raised with high expectations: you can work and have a family—you can have it all! Before I had a child, I really, truly believed this. However, having a baby has changed my perspective and priorities. Call me what you want, but the reality is that I have a hard time seeing how I can work full-time and be able to spend enough quality time with my husband and daughter once all the daily chores are done.
By Theresa
The modern woman in many developed nations can have a fulfilling career, raise a family, and enjoy a fun social life. We are having our “cake” and feasting on it. So why are women less happy than men?
A study (2009) conducted by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”, describes this phenomenon:
“By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women’s declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging—one with higher subjective well-being for men.”
The study brings up a good point about who carries the “emotional burden” of running a household. While men tend to help out more nowadays compared to a generation ago, women still carry the emotional burden of keeping an orderly home and raising the kids, on top of managing their career. (The average man I know doesn’t feel too guilty about going to work and leaving their kids behind or having a messy house.)
By Theresa
Is there a special someone you look forward to seeing at work? Read about my personal account on dating my boss and some lessons learned along the way. Scandalous? You decide.
