Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Expectant Coworker Adjusts Expectations

ha ha I'm witty...

So the woman across the hall is pregnant, which is very exciting. She's super-nice and brings us all candy on a regular basis. Basically everyone on the floor likes her a lot, so we're all excited to get pregnancy updates, plan a secret-surprise shower, and bring in little gifties here and there.

What I feel bad about is the people clearly trying to unload their crap on her - they know she is too nice to say "no."

I mean, I am ALL FOR hand-me-downs. Heck, hand-me-downs are practically like shopping, sans money. A big bag of stuff I've never  seen before? heck YES! Hell, I wore clothes from the free box in college, and right now I am wearing a top that used to belong a cousin. Basically, I am trying to tell you that I'm not being snobby about people's stuff.

What would make me annoyed if I were in pregnant coworker's situation are the conversations that are going like this "so....I have X that used to belong to little precious. He's 10 months now, so he doesn't need it. It's kind of ripped and stained, but you sew, right? And it's not like you get to go out much in those first months, so a stain on the front isn't a big deal. It's just food. or maybe spit up breast milk or something. You'll get used to it." Um. ew. Just now I overheard this from across the hall "so it's broken in some places (I think this referred to a mobile) but you can just tie any old toy to it and hang it from the ceiling, it's basically good as new."

OK people. It's great that you want to give stuff to pregnant coworker, but if it belongs in the trash, maybe you should put it there...because I'm guessing if you don't, she's going to do it for you, so how about we all save ourselves some time and effort....

I don't envy coworker for this reason, though I must say, there are many enviable things about her pregnancy, one being that her coworkers have stopped asking her when she's going to have a baby. Yeah. I envy that. A lot.

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