working next to them
The day after my birthday, my friend, whom I also happen to work with, treated me to my choice of takeout, and we settled on a very nice steakhouse nearby, I with the burger and she with the turkey burger.
As we were eating, surfing the Internet and oohing and ahhing over our meals, a colleague came by.
“This department must be doing well, if you can afford that,” he joked. My friend made some comment about its being my birthday, and the man asked how old, and he made some other joke and left.
It’s funny, isn’t it, how even in joking, there’s a bit of truth? And how even in lunch choices, we are setting up some sort of persona for which others to judge?
In my time at my job, I have observed: There’s another department that eats out everyday, always from fast-food places—one day, McDonald’s; another, Wendy’s. They never go fancy, and they never brown-bag.
There are people who drive expensive cars—our parking lot is no stranger to the BMW, the Lexus, all manner of SUVs, even in these tougher times. There are people who also drive the beaters and the uglies.
And the colleague—the one who joked about our money when he saw what we were eating—makes a six-figure salary, much more than we do.
I’m just saying, part of me thinks it obnoxious that people are watching, and judging, others’ financial decisions, even when they don’t really know them. The other part of me thinks it eye-opening to find, so easily, that I do that same thing, every day.
Filed under 9-5, budgeting, money stories |
2 Responses to “working next to them”
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I think it’s simpler that that. Back in the lizard part of our brain we’re sociable creatures, and any little variation from the day-to-day is an excuse for commentary.
In my office, some of us (all over the pay scale) have talked about going in together regularly to make lunch… bring in a big bag o’ salad and a loaf of bread, someone start a kettle of soup going at 9 or stick a casserole in the oven at 11 (we’ve got a kitchen), and have a lovely lunch at noon. We haven’t done it, in part because of inertia and in part because we know that a.) there will be amiable mocking from everyone; b.) there will be anger from people who -live- to find reasons to feel slighted; and c.) there will be mooching. We’re such a weird little species: who cares about a, b, or c? Still, they are enough to keep us in inertia.
The car thing, though, is more a keeping up with the joneses thing. You either play or you don’t. When I was in college I had to catch an early shuttle to the lab every morning and half the time I’d run into the chancellor on the way and we’d walk along together. I went to a big scary research university and the chancellor was not only Mr. Big from his position, he was also from a famously wealthy family. But he was well know as a practical, plain-spoken guy. He drove a big ol’ beater. Boat. Heee-uge. Like a 10 year old Buick LeSable or something. I thought that was pretty cool.
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