Female who often hates working with females. help!

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

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Loooove the smell of paint!

 

[LarryPQ]

You should come see us in the Office Work thread. Vent away, we understand.

 

[gmendoza]

I love the smeel of paint,stripper,wax,and all sorts of minerals for cleaning.I love to varnish and shelaque.

OOOOOOHHHHHH! the colors!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

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I agree.

And they probably don't know what a "home repair project" is.

You will never be able to please a bunch of critiques like that. They will complain regardless. If you didn't do your job, then they would still complain.

 

[deerman]

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Just ask them if the need any cheese to go with the whine......oh tell the strippers they need a bath....

 

[yinepu]

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so THAT explains why I like painting and doing home repairs?.. lol...

 

[SillyChicken]

I work in facility maint. If I have one problem to take care of, I hear it from 50 people! Gets annoying fast. I have to do all painting or smelly stuff on off hours or weekends... I don't mind the OT, but sometimes, I think people like to whine just to get out of work. They'll come in saturated in perfume and go out and smoke, but complain that so n so's hand lotion stinks and is making them sick. I know some people really do have issues with scents, but when people abuse that excuse, it makes it hard to tell the whiners and the one's with issues apart, and makes me rather unsympathetic.

I notice at my job, the overweight or lower paid, less skilled women, and the gay guys are the one's who complain the most.

 

[heatherindeskies]

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Thanks for the invitation! just might see y'all there.

 

[Fierlin1182]

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Don't know if it's just me, but I also love the smell of brand new building materials.

 

[zzGypsy]

as to working with all women... yeah I get that.

SO happy to be in engineering where the men outnumber the women, and the majority of women are more like men...

there are a variety of strategies, things you can do. since you're going to have to work with the situation (presuming their bosses won't tell them to knock it off

and act like adults

) you might as well have some fun.

you can try these out and see what works. bonus points if you can get them all in during the same work day. double bonus points if you find a way to combine them and use two at the same time.

Things you can say when they say "the stuff you're using stinks"...

- "...ooooh" (crestfallen) "and I was really enjoing the smell, now you've ruined it for me." (pout)

- "Is that what the odor is? I thought is was just the way this room (patient, office, wing of the building) smelled!"

- "What smell? I don't smell anything!"

- "Como? Que? No habla englais..."

- beat them to the punch when they approach by scrunching your face, wrinkling your nose, waving away some air and asking "is that you?"

- "wow, and all this time I thought it was my rubber soled shoes."

- "I'm sorry, I have a nose disability." <smile brightly> "But hey, it got me this job."

- "Sorry, I missed that, could you say it again? I couldn't hear you over the smell."

- look puzzled, sniff around a bit, and say "you know, I didn't really notice it untill you mentioned it."

- "its nothing compared to my night job."

- "you know, you're right." <small pause> "How 'bout them Lakers? (Giants, Cowboys, pick a team...)"

- "I'm sorry, did you say 'sinks'? They're down the hall in the bathroom."

- "Fourty one". when they say "what?" reply, "the number of people who have commented on the smell today." if they say, "well it does", say "Fourty Two".

- "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that?", when they repeat, say, "could you speak up?", after the next repeat, "I'm sorry, I've got a cold and my ears are blocked, one more time?" after the fourth try, "Oh, that's what I thought you said."

or if you really need a trump card...
look hurt, quiver your lower lip, turn away, put your face in your hands, then take a big shuddery breath and let it out with a little whimper...

See? working with women can be fun!

ok, ok, just KIDDING! probably not a great idea to do any of those, but hey, since you can't always change other people's anoying behavior, at least you can entertain yourself by contemplating what you *could* be saying when they're badly behaved! and being entertained is SO much better than letting them get to you and being stressed out. you'll end up looking amused, smiling, sometimes giving a little chuckle or a head shake, and then going back to work. folks may think you're a little nuts... good natured, but kinda crazy... that works too... after all, folks generally avoid antagonizing crazy people...

no, I don't have your circumstances exactly, but I've worked with some folks who sound just like them. it's not a bad thing, being entertained... sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the show.