I was at the new store yesterday for the second time.
Any time you are at a new job site, there are little things to negotiate. Perhaps you like progressive jazz and the other person in the space does not. Maybe one person likes a colder temperature than the other. It is easy to express these differences in a pleasant, self-deprecating way. You can do a little “It’s not you; it’s me” and work things out.
In this particular case, though, these straightforward courtesies will not work.
I tried to think of ways to say what I needed to say.
“Everyone has different levels of tolerance for untidiness….”
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t work in this…”
“Would you mind if I just tidied up a little here?”
Impossible. The truth is, we make tidiness into a sort of moral issue for women. Saying, “I can’t work in this mess” is the equivalent of saying, “You slut!”
The other workers have just complained under their breaths and said nothing. I can see why. Even just cleaning up for people carries an implication of criticism. They feel that they have to join in, or apologize, or perhaps say that they were just about to do that but haven’t had time. The cleaner-up feels caught and the messy one feels resentful.
Fortunately, the culprit — no, no, I mean, the person with a higher tolerance for mess — left early yesterday. I cleaned up. I won’t be back till next Friday, and by then things will have settled down. And possibly messed up again. We’ll see.
I have to confess that I took a couple of pictures. I was going to post them, since one of the things we do on blogs is tell our side of the story in confidence that our readers will probably validate our decisions, accept our version of things, and generally go along with us. You would have been appalled, and would have agreed with me that I had to do something about it.
My camera has mysteriously disappeared. This may be God’s way of pointing out that, in order for this to be an honest post, I would have to show you pictures of areas of my life that are currently messy — my car, my pantry, and my sewing table would do for starters.
However, that means that I am heading off to today’s conference with no camera, which is unfortunate. I like to post these things on the store blog.
The other thing that happened yesterday is that a giant corporation called us — having found us on the internet — with a 16K order. There is many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip, and we are not counting our chickens before they hatch, but it makes me feel that my work has not been in vain. If they come through with this, I will shop with them at least once, in a celebratory fashion.
It is hard to know what today’s conference will be like, but I am anticipating that there will be quite a bit of down time while people are in sessions, so I am taking the Bijoux blouse along. I have completed the front and back, done the shoulder seams, and finished the neckband. I also picked up the stitches for the first sleeve, so I will be working on that sleeve in the interstices of the day.
I believe I like the neck band. I was not sure about it, but it is growing on me.
Enjoy your weekend!
The problem may just mean different organizational styles.
It took me a while to realize this, but I tend to organize things by where I put them. My area, at times, looks messier than some other people’s areas.
But I have a coworker whose area always looks neat. The problem is her method of clutter-control. She grabs stuff and just mindlessly STICKS it somewhere. But if you ask her two seconds after she’s put down an object where it is, she doesn’t know. She really has no idea.
She is convinced that neatness equals organization, but she can never find things.
And the worst part is that every time she comes near my area, she shuffles everything around thoughtlessly before she even talks to me. If I’m not paying attention, the first indication I have that she’s there is that the instructions for what I’m working on suddenly get pulled out from my view and stuffed into a folder which may not be the right one. She picks up my pens and other supplies and walks away with them. This disrupts my work by making me have to hunt for things for the next half hour.
And she is completely unaware that she’s doing this or of the chaos she’s spreading in her wake.
But I can find my work/pens/timesheet unless she’s been there, and she can’t find anything. Ever.
I’m not implying that you are disorganized in this way, but that different people handle organization differently.
I prefer the “It’s you; not me” angle. Ha! Just joshin… Even without pictures, I’ll take your side. That’s te kind of friend I am…
RYC: When we were kids my little sister was out in the sun too long one day and ended up with a nasty case of sunstroke and blistered skin. As an adult in Central Otago not so long ago I was very silly and was standing out under a 36 degree Central sun for about 2 hours talking to a passer by. I managed to stave off the blistering by throwing myself into a bath filled with cold water to try and draw the heat away from ny skin. I was very lucky but I did have to spend the rest of the day in cold water and also had to stay out of the sun for the next 2 or 3 days. Even though the temps in the US were hotter than this I never ever felt my skin burning (also ended up with a little more tan colour when I got back to a NZ winter.)
I quite like that neck band. It’s lovely.
You have inspired me to include my knitting on my next post. It’s not nearly as pretty as yours, though.