blogger profile

Sabrina Heise

Editorial Assistant

True confessions: * Not as politically aware as I should be. * I bite my nails. * I didn't love the Sex and the City movie. * I am actually, really addicted to sugar and should probably be in a 12-step program. * By addicted, I mean, I lash out at people and get grumpy when I haven't had my sug...

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Water Cooler Chat.

In response to my last post,  skirt!Charlotte editor, Aleigh, wondered what conversations we have at our office here in Charleston.

I looked back and realized that I’ve had a huge luxury in my work experiences: I’ve never  worked in a male-dominated workplace. My office now is 100% female. I work with 10 amazing women who support each other and save cattiness for TV dramas. The only times we see males during  an average day is when our UPS carrier comes with deliveries. At my previous job, right out of college, it was also largely female. We had a staff of 12. Four of those people were men: two of them were gay, and the other two were incredibly open-minded and respectful of their female bosses.

In my short career, I’ve never been been in offices where I’ve been expected to make coffee (unless I took the last cup and needed to start a fresh batch). I’ve never been leered at by a creepy boss or teased for getting teary-eyed on an emotional day.

But the best part of working with a group of like-minded individuals (like the skirt! ladies) are the random conversations that spring up. It’s not unusual for someone to peek over a cubicle or out of a door and say out of nowhere , “Is it just me, or is Johnny Depp the hottest man in existence?”

When someone gets a delivery from J. Crew or Zappos, the individual is expected to try on (or at least hold up) the item so that all of us can admire/envy the said item.

Like at summer camp, almost everyone gets their period around the same time. Instead of  snarky “oh...it’s her time of the month” comments, we just watch the tampon supply in the bucket in the kitchen diminish faster than usual.

In our office, we don’t really have “off-limits” conversations. Of course, no one wants to hear in-depth details about how everyone spent their Valentine’s evenings, but we’ll listen cheerfully to where he took you and what kind of flowers you got.

We talk about granite countertops and what colors Nikki should paint her kitchen, and about the kick-ass article on feminism that’s been passed around. We muse about Brett Michaels’ hairline (plugs?) and we mourned Benazir Bhutto’s death.  We talk about Heath Ledger and Hillary Clinton. We talk about NY Fashion Week and the NY Stock Exchange.

We talk a lot. Conversation unites us. We learn commonalities and differences and it makes us closer. Some people thrive in regimented workplaces, where expectations and goals are written like signs from big brother and the high point of the week is “Casual Friday.” I would rather be here...with our skirt! superhero cheering us on above the red couch and “whistle while you work” emblazoned on a wall in scarlet cursive. Here, it doesn’t matter if you show up in a business suit. You can show up in a purple-sparkled dress (as I have done), as long as you bring creativity, flexibility, and the uniting joy of watching skirt! grow.