Crepuscular reflections

The purpose of this post is to highlight some quotidian details and reconsider them with the clarity of hindsight. I hope you find it insightful or helpful, even if I’m not talking about Big Ideas (I do so like those). Maybe I’ll make it a thing. Having no patience or interest to keep a journal, I hope this will suffice as a record of the ideas I consider important.

A certain form of white knighting suggested itself to me while I was training in the new girl at work. Between explaining how to follow the rules, which ones to break and when, and how to cover one’s ass, I said, “If anyone gives you shit for being slow just tell them you’re new. That’s just how it is and they should know that. But if they don’t for some reason you let me know and I’ll kick their ass. Seriously, I’ll fix whatever problem they have.”

Now, that’s generally true, and not just for new people. Weird as it seems to people who have known me for a long time, I have a lot of social capital to spend at my workplace. This is in spite of turning down so many promotion offers (or that might even have helped me, who knows?).

Back to the topic at hand, I consider that this is definitely white knighting. And yet, it also felt justified by the context. Like most people starting a new job, this girl is nervous and shy and isn’t talking much or displaying her personality. This makes sense, as she hasn’t gotten a feel for the workplace culture yet so she can’t properly conform. All neurotypical people have this initial problem of tailoring their personalities to fit the subsociety.

Giving her this initial sense of security is a good thing, I think. It’s a different quality from moxie or confidence or self-esteem, the deficiencies of which I’ll be the first to preach. Hmm, I’m having trouble describing this. It’s like the difference in nurturing children in K-selected societies and r-selected societies.

And there’s another difference. In spite of my philosophy on workplace relationships (i.e. there are 3.5 billion females in the world with whom I don’t work), I still recognize the omnipresent need to win The Game. The Game is always on. And one of my consistent methods for winning The Game is by constantly expressing my assumed superiority, along with intermittent reminders of the same. By assuming the archetype of father and protector and the concomitant responsibilities, I place myself above her.

I am fully aware that there is danger in expressing this Beta-style commitment.

Another curious thing happened nearer to the end of my workday. A girl was tackling a two-hour job in a very dainty way that I saw would stretch it into four to six hours. Now, she’s about a 7 and (in an almost logical sort of way) mostly useless in the workplace. You probably know the type. Oh, and she was doing a shit job too. You and I are probably worth about five of these girls in terms of work quality and output. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sexual dimorphism. Viva la difference. But I digress, and this tangent begins to resemble a secant.

Anyway, this chick is doing a poor job slowly. So I butt in, plan it out for her, redo some of the work, and lay the foundations to approach the job in a more efficient way. About 15 minutes; She’s about as engaged as you’d expect. Then, I showed her some tricks to save time on individual items, and to do one thing she thought was impossible. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree and suddenly she’s all thankful and shit.

WTF, right? The obvious conclusion is that she (and other wimminz, I believe) simply does not care about long-term efficiency. Industrial engineering ideas- like starting a new load of laundry while you fold another, so that the machine is working in the meantime- are lost on her.

But there’s a caveat too; once I woke her from Barbie girl’s Barbie world (stimulated her, if you’re a crass misogynist) she was finally receptive to the abstract ideas as well. Once awake, she learned. And this is saying something for yet another relatively worthless bimbo. Like night and day.

Well, my goal was 600 words and I’m at 700+. Life is more than work, I know, even if it doesn’t seem that way sometimes. Some eclecticism tomorrow, I hope.