How do you deal with cackling hens in the office space?

[SDET]

I channeled my inner Coronel Sanders and sold the fried chicken for a settlement check. By the way... I am speaking of some PAST work environments. I currently have an excellent contract based project. When that ends, I like to think ahead on how to weed out in the interview process toxic environments, and if that fails, be prepared to deal with a toxic environment after hire. It's all about BE PREPARED!

When dealing with lemons make lemonade. When dealing with cackling hens, make fried chicken. I don't have the answer all I do know is for me that's a work environment that's radioactive. Not my cup of tea.

 

[Lursa]

How many produce deliverables in the same quality and quantity as men WITHOUT sloughing off the harder tasks on other people?

Just as many, possibly more. Prove otherwise.

Afterall, our thinking is all concentrated in one brain, and not split between 2, one of which is only focused on sex.

 

[SDET]

I flip that off like a switch. My wife even sometimes complains when I'm going over a problem with an API in my mind and that's ALL I think about. We have an understanding: No thinking about work on a weekend. One way that I combat sex addiction is to substitute non-sexual activities that will eventually lead to a sexual adventure. For example, comparing hotel prices in Bogota for a future trip.

Just as many, possibly more. Prove otherwise.

Afterall, our thinking is all concentrated in one brain, and not split between 2, one of which is only focused on sex.

 

[Lursa]

I flip that off like a switch. My wife even sometimes complains when I'm going over a problem with an API in my mind and that's ALL I think about. We have an understanding: No thinking about work on a weekend. One way that I combat sex addiction is to substitute non-sexual activities that will eventually lead to a sexual adventure. For example, comparing hotel prices in Bogota for a future trip.

So no proof?

(And btw, you described the opposite of switching it off :rofl )

 

[SDET]

I didn't record my experiences. I do know what I have seen over thirty years. Nearly all of the no-nonsense women have been Asian.

So no proof?

(And btw, you described the opposite of switching it off :rofl )

 

[Lursa]

I didn't record my experiences. I do know what I have seen over thirty years. Nearly all of the no-nonsense women have been Asian.

We've all seen you write accounts about 'your experiences,' and few parallel reality for the rest of the population.

So your 'opinion' is dismissed as blindly prejudicial.

 

[Fledermaus]

American women just aren't cultured to do high focus work. I say American, because in China, most IT workers are women. However, they are predisposed not to produce chatter.

OMFG...

The ignorance of that statement.

 

[Airyaman]

I have an answer in mind, but I want to see other's answers first before I chime in.

Scenario: Imagine retracing your steps through 15,000 lines of code as a final verification to make sure you haven't missed handling any application state. There's not only all those lines of code, but all the entity relationships.

Half way through these hens start cackling things like "My husband had better have done the dishes when I get home or someone is sleeping on the couch." That's just an example, but it can be any mindless non-work-related conversation.

What would you do to remedy such a scenario?

Amazing how this thread popped up after my comment how you seem to have a problem with women.

It appears you do indeed have a problem with women.

I hope you can work it out. It seems to consume your thought processes.

 

[SDET]

I'm always thinking about casualties. What casualties do you recommend focusing on? My wife gets annoyed and becomes hard to be around if I fixate on life expectancy. My kids are almost adults, do child-proofing is not a concern. So, yes, casualties caused by women tend to be more on my mind lately.

Amazing how this thread popped up after my comment how you seem to have a problem with women.

It appears you do indeed have a problem with women.

I hope you can work it out. It seems to consume your thought processes.

 

[Airyaman]

I'm always thinking about casualties. What casualties do you recommend focusing on? My wife gets annoyed and becomes hard to be around if I fixate on life expectancy. My kids are almost adults, do child-proofing is not a concern. So, yes, casualties caused by women tend to be more on my mind lately.

Is this because you've determined there is a correlation between women and casualties, or because you want to blame casualties on women?

 

[Incredulous]

The OP has posted in the past that he is on the autism/Asperger spectrum.

Thank you for providing that information. I will keep it in mind going forward.

 

[RobertU]

“I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

 

[Fledermaus]

I'm always thinking about casualties. What casualties do you recommend focusing on? My wife gets annoyed and becomes hard to be around if I fixate on life expectancy. My kids are almost adults, do child-proofing is not a concern. So, yes, casualties caused by women tend to be more on my mind lately.

Grow

A

Pair.

 

[Wayne Jr]

It's funny you mention that. My CURRENT manager got me some of those shooting range style EARMUFFS, the ones that have a decibel reduction of 30 and breathe pretty well. He's pretty helpful. He explained that he understands where I'm coming from because he is hard of hearing from being in noisy server rooms for decades. I took on hard projects, looking for ones that other team members gave up on. Once I proved myself, I got two work from home days. The funny thing is that a noisy server room wouldn't bother me because it's "white noise".

You see, THAT'S how it's supposed to work.

I can do you one better:

My job has a strict 'no headphones' policy under the excuse that it's a safety hazard due to forklift traffic around work stations. They know all about the PlugPhones that looks like a regular earplug, and they know about AirBuds that can be hidden under long hair or a beanie pulled down. They look for it, they write people up, they don't allow it.

So, when I started, I bought a hearing aid that connects to my phone. Everyone just thinks 'oh, that guy has a hearing problem, ok'. Sure, I have a hearing problem, a problem hearing my music and podcasts with this stupid policy in place When someone talks to me they see me touch a button on the hearing aid and they think I'm turning it on so I can hear them. Well, they're partially correct, but I'm pushing 'pause' so that I can hear them I have a regular earplug in the other ear, so with the hearing aid off, my ears are plugged, with it on but not playing, I can hear conversation, and of course there's my playing music and podcasts through it too. Every so often I get a comment about 'I don't know how you can work with soandso they're annoying'. I can't hear them, is how I can work with them. The best part is they don't think I'm ignoring them, they just think I'm deff, and they don't get mad at me for not hearing their hen cackling or meaningless small talk. I've been there for 6 years and no one is the wiser.

 

[SDET]

I like your style!

I can do you one better:

My job has a strict 'no headphones' policy under the excuse that it's a safety hazard due to forklift traffic around work stations. They know all about the PlugPhones that looks like a regular earplug, and they know about AirBuds that can be hidden under long hair or a beanie pulled down. They look for it, they write people up, they don't allow it.

So, when I started, I bought a hearing aid that connects to my phone. Everyone just thinks 'oh, that guy has a hearing problem, ok'. Sure, I have a hearing problem, I have a hard time hearing my music and podcasts with this stupid policy in place When someone talks to me they see me touch a button on the hearing aid and they think I'm turning it on so I can hear them. Well, they're partially correct, but I'm pushing 'pause' so that I can hear them I've been there fore 6 years and no one is the wiser.

 

[SDET]

Exactly! Furthermore, you become like the people you surround yourself with. Either you're producing or you're bull****ting. Chatter indicates bull****ting.

“I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

 

[SDET]

There's one crucial difference between me and others who are similarly situated. I get what I want out of life by any means necessary, but have sense enough to avoid counterproductive measures. I have attended support groups where most of the guys had no job, no access to women, given up, with only SSDI for money. If one looks at it as a puzzle with zero regard for other people's feelings, one can get what one wants. I tell these guys the following:

1) There are millions of companies. If you get fired every three months, you'll never run out of companies to work for: Keep trying and don't give up. Get the most out of laws that protect you. Memorize them and use their enforcement mechanism as needed. Remember that lawsuit proceeds pay the rent just as well as wages.

a) Study job listings and constantly develop know-how to be qualified for more and more jobs
b) Prefer contract work over direct hire. There's less pressure to conform to things that you'll never understand

2) Learn Spanish. You will be successful South of the border. You'll be the Big Gringo and instantly have status.

3) You are the most important person in the world. Everybody matters less than you do. Stop caring what people think, only concern yourself with written rules.

4) You owe the world NOTHING.

5) Women at work will ALMOST ALWAYS punish you for not having abilities that your brain will never process. They think people without empathy deserve to suffer! (Ironic isn't it). Just don't interact with them.

Society has treated you as disposable; return the favor. Take as much as you can from people and give as little as you can get away with.

You see, sweetie, I'm a grizzled old man. I have been through the wringer and know how to avoid being screwed over. I have SUCCESSFULLY stayed employed over thirty years at professional pay rates. I know how to make it costly to **** with me.

The OP has posted in the past that he is on the autism/Asperger spectrum.

 

[katiegrrl0]

I have an answer in mind, but I want to see other's answers first before I chime in.

Scenario: Imagine retracing your steps through 15,000 lines of code as a final verification to make sure you haven't missed handling any application state. There's not only all those lines of code, but all the entity relationships.

Half way through these hens start cackling things like "My husband had better have done the dishes when I get home or someone is sleeping on the couch." That's just an example, but it can be any mindless non-work-related conversation.

What would you do to remedy such a scenario?

I would say you are a bit misogynistic to think only women gossip or chatter. Men are just as guilty. How do you silence the loud cocks in the office is also a question?

 

[Fledermaus]

I like your style!

Haz U noise cancelling headphones yet?

 

[Fledermaus]

There's one crucial difference between me and others who are similarly situated. I get what I want out of life by any means necessary, but have sense enough to avoid counterproductive measures. I have attended support groups where most of the guys had no job, no access to women, given up, with only SSDI for money. If one looks at it as a puzzle with zero regard for other people's feelings, one can get what one wants. I tell these guys the following:

1) There are millions of companies. If you get fired every three months, you'll never run out of companies to work for: Keep trying and don't give up. Get the most out of laws that protect you. Memorize them and use their enforcement mechanism as needed. Remember that lawsuit proceeds pay the rent just as well as wages.

a) Study job listings and constantly develop know-how to be qualified for more and more jobs
b) Prefer contract work over direct hire. There's less pressure to conform to things that you'll never understand

2) Learn Spanish. You will be successful South of the border. You'll be the Big Gringo and instantly have status.

3) You are the most important person in the world. Everybody matters less than you do. Stop caring what people think, only concern yourself with written rules.

4) You owe the world NOTHING.

5) Women at work will ALMOST ALWAYS punish you for not having abilities that your brain will never process. They think people without empathy deserve to suffer! (Ironic isn't it). Just don't interact with them.

Society has treated you as disposable; return the favor. Take as much as you can from people and give as little as you can get away with.

You see, sweetie, I'm a grizzled old man. I have been through the wringer and know how to avoid being screwed over. I have SUCCESSFULLY stayed employed over thirty years at professional pay rates. I know how to make it costly to **** with me.

This went from whining about noise to whining about women.

Real men would have handled this by now.

 

[SDET]

SOME men certainly are. However, the process of dealing with them is the same. Some people favor to execute a projects with shallow, low thought solutions. I don't want that kind around me irrespective of gender.

I would say you are a bit misogynistic to think only women gossip or chatter. Men are just as guilty. How do you silence the loud cocks in the office is also a question?

 

[SDET]

Irrespective of how you define a real man, younger guys on the autistic side of the spectrum are much closer to being men following my instructions. It's a quantum leap better than living with their parents, living on government payments and being incels. My approach isn't pretty, but it gets the job done of them getting their stated objectives.

This went from whining about noise to whining about women.

Real men would have handled this by now.

 

[SDET]

Those don't cut it for me. The shooting range style earmuffs are what's needed for no more than three hours per day.

Haz U noise cancelling headphones yet?

 

[Fledermaus]

Those don't cut it for me. The shooting range style earmuffs are what's needed for no more than three hours per day.

Noise canceling headphones cut it for people that need noise canceled. What is your issue wi h them? And you can get larger sizes.

 

[Fledermaus]

Irrespective of how you define a real man, younger guys on the autistic side of the spectrum are much closer to being men following my instructions. It's a quantum leap better than living with their parents, living on government payments and being incels. My approach isn't pretty, but it gets the job done of them getting their stated objectives.

Real men figure out solutions then shares those solutions with other real men and even real women.

Real men are not afraid of real women.