I will not mention where I work nor share my blog with the people who work at my company. For one thing, there is a company policy that states that we (as employees) will not identify ourselves in forums like this as employees of megabank and since I work for the department that wrote the policy, I'd best not violate it. It's not a dumb rule, the last thing in the world any company wants to see is some dumb ass computer geek quoted in the wall street journal for some comment they made in an online chatroom.
Suzie14n'eger: So, you're a big time stock broker?
Megabankdude: yeah baby, I've got all the hot tips on Megabank.
Suzie14n'eger: Cool, what stock should I buy?
Megabankdude: oh Suzie, cash in your life savings and buy smellevision, it's going to skyrocket. Wanna meet, you sound hot.
The other reason is that the folks I work with think of me as a reasonably sane, responsible, smart person. They don't need to know I'm too stupid to work automatic bill pay, and that my cat humps a blanket.
Yesterday, this concept was driven home to me by a gal at my company I'll call Kat. She recently went to Rome and Germany on a vacation (odd pairing, but whatever) and we have been IMing about the trip and my trip to Spain. She shipped me a link to her online photo album - which I excitedly checked out.
After looking at her photo's I looked at the site they were posted on, it was an MSN personal page with a blog, photo albums and lists of favorite things, music, movies, books and I don't know sex toys. It was pretty cool, and I surfed back over to her photo albums and looked at one of the albums about her cats and saw that one of the albums was called "me and Joe in SF." I did think I was snooping at that point, but she DID send me the link to the whole site, so I thought, what the hell, let's see what her boyfriend looks like.
I clicked the link and a man who looked EXACTLY like one of my married colleagues popped up. I paged ahead a few more pages and it WAS him. There's Joe in a t-shirt on a couch, Joe with no shirt on a bed, Joe near the water and on and on. My heart started to race and I felt sick to my stomach.
I closed the album and Kat pops up on IM.
Kat: so, did you like my pictures?
TP: yeah they're great. Looks like you had fun.
Ok, so I have a choice here, I can ignore what I saw, or acknowledge that I saw it - which is what I did.
TP: so, here's the dangerous thing about passing your personal blog to someone at work... You and Joe?
Kat: TPgal... were you SNOOPING?
TP: oh god, yes, and I am so sorry!
Kat: LOL it's ok, it's just not commonly known, but yes, Joe and I, yes.
TP: wow
Kat: It's not something we broadcast
TP: I would think not
Kat: It's been going on for ages and only a few people know, and now you
TP: I'll keep it under my hat
Kat: thanks
TP: sorry, I have to ask, isn't he uh... married?
Kat: ha ha ha ha ha ha No.
THANK GOD!!!!!
So, while it turns out that the love between Joe and Kat is legal-I really wish I wasn't in on the secret. I really do not have an issue with folks at the same company dating - same department, I have problems with but that's not the case here. My issue is that now I've seen Joe shirtless on a bed and it's going to be a little more difficult to sit across the table from him now that I've got a visual.
So, moral of my story is... my blog is for me and my people and my work people whom I really like... are not 'my people.'
1 comment:
1. Is he married or not?
2. If not, how come you thought he was?
3. How can it be snooping if the other person has posted it on the Web and sent you a link?
4. What is it about this blog and forbidden cat/Kat love?
5. I take it you would not like me to post any coded references to your place of employment. In fact, let me assure readers that "megabank" is not even a bank at all, and certainly not one with a presence in the global money center that is Seattle. It is in fact a manufacturer of dyes and fixatives located in the Great Lakes region.
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