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Why do women gossip and dither in the lunch queue?

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Women who gossip all the time and are indecisive!  Here we go, its one of my pet hates and I fully expect to be flamed well and truly for this one.  Okay, I’m one of those office workers and I like to go and grab a sandwich from the canteen.  Lots of people like to do this between twelve and and two in the afternoon, so as you would expect lunch times can be quite busy.

Now my gripe isn’t with the food or the contents of the sandwich, which is sometimes mediocre.  My issue is with my fellow workers, particularly the female ones as I find it quite irritating the way their brains’ suddenly switch off the moment they queue up for lunch. 

They spend about ten minutes whilst waiting in the queue gassing with whoever will listen about their kids, their boyfriend, their diet, what happened on ‘sex in the city’ last night.  What they really should be doing is deciding what they want to eat.  So what’s wrong with a bit of polite conversation or gossip in the lunch queue I hear you ask?

Whats on the lunch menu, gossip? they can’t make up their mind what they want...

The problem is that when it’s their turn to be served, they can’t make up their mind what they want and this delays everyone else!  If they had read the menu to see what ‘today’s special’ was, they wouldn’t be trying to decide between that and the bowl of salad when they get to the front of the queue. I know this probably all comes across as a bit petty and maybe even arrogant, but it’s all time wasted queuing and that is something I find very irritating.  Another part of it all really is the fact that I have to stand there and listen to the gory inner details of their personal life.  No thank you, way too much information before I’ve had my lunch!

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest, and while we are at it let’s talk about personal space.  Standing in line isn’t difficult.  It doesn’t involve meandering back and forth between gossip buddies.  It also doesn’t involve being a few inches from me with your arms flailing around!  In short, respect personal space and think about lunch not gossip!


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Donna

Donna

I know women do gossip at times about all sorts of things, but for me personally I DO Not Gossip at all.
12/12/12 Donna
-17
grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman

Going back to your comment of 11.28 today Mike, I noticed long ago that two of the most clearly and well spoken newsreaders on television were Moira Stuart and Trevor McDonald!

I too abhor the culture of despising those with an education; I believe it's widely thought that this is the reason that so many young black men do so poorly at school, it's not "cool" to do well.
16/10/11 grumpyoldwoman
-10
MikeP

MikeP

Nonny : It's so true that a good attitude to others can carry us far, and academic education and intelligence cannot replace that quality. I fail to understand why people seem to think that material wealth has a greater value than manners and decency, but almost daily I see people who should know better behaving badly, for example the well-dressed middle aged woman who emerged from a Porsche Cayenne and spat on the pavement in full view of a lot of people. Nice!

When I briefly ran a customer service division I heard one of the staff referring to me as 'that posh ****' that sits in the back office! Why? Because I speak proper English. Is it some sort of inverse snobbery or just jealousy?
16/10/11 MikeP
-20
Nonny

Nonny

Mike P , I know what you mean about being mocked for speaking well. I grew up in a poor, tough area and, as a child, people would often mock me for speaking well and being polite.

I was not in any way looking down on other people and, at that age, didn't even realise that I spoke differently to the people around me; I just read a lot and had a vocabulary that was a bit advanced for my age. Also, my parents raised me to believe that if you worked hard and treated people with courtesy that it didn't matter where you came from because you could go anywhere and hold your head up among any company.

I realise that I was very lucky to be raised by parents like that; poverty of expectation is a much bigger burden than financial poverty as it can last for life.
16/10/11 Nonny
-3
MikeP

MikeP

Thanks Nonny, I'd never come across the expression 'Valley Girl speak'. I assumed it probably referred to some deprived area of the UK such as the Rhondda Valley, but it appears to originate in California, which is hardly what one might call deprived in the conventionally understood sense.

What really irritates me is that in the UK everybody has the opportunity to be educated, even if it's only to a basic level, and yet there seems to be an underclass of people who delight in mocking proper speech and behaviour. It contrasts with people in so-called developing countries (many of which are not developing at all but falling further into savagery and despotic rule) who take pride in speaking English properly and accurately.

Based on my own experiences in the UK, it seems that there is a stratum of immigrant society whose English, in particular our Polish and Indian colleagues, is better than much of the native population. It does not bode well for the future.
16/10/11 MikeP
-11
Nonny

Nonny

Mike P, "like" is "valley girl speak" which has migrated over to Britain. It's an all purpose word; it can mean "I said/ he said" or "I felt" or can express agreement if used with another valley girl word "totally" as in "and I was like, totally!"

Irritating isn't it?
16/10/11 Nonny
-5
MikeP

MikeP

"she sez and I sez and then I sez"

Even worse than the above is : "So I was like, you know, and she was like ......."

What the hell does it mean?
16/10/11 MikeP
-7
Zyrcona

Zyrcona

Plenty of men behave in this way as well. It's not because of their sex, but because they choose to behave in an immature and inappropriate way.
15/10/11 Zyrcona
-5
Stalag 14

Stalag 14

It appears to me that it is totally immpossible for any female to travel on public transport without YAK,YAK,YAK, either to someone near them or, usually, on their mobile phone.
It drives me up the wall the inane babble of "she sez and I sez and then I sez" of verbal garbage. Can't they wait till they get off the bus before discussing their life in its minute detail for anyone to hear, what the hell is wrong with them?
15/10/11 Stalag 14
-16
male gossips ruined by life!

male gossips ruined by life!

The biggest gossip are men, but somehow they do not get labelled negatively. In fact dangerous gossip are men and god forbid if you fall foul to an egotistical one, as dent to his ego could ruin your career and health for good!
18/11/10 male gossips ruined by life!
5
anne

anne

I know, all women seem to care about is whose pregnant, whose having an affair , and with who, and their kids ailments. If I have to make a phone call from a call box, I only wait If there`s a man in it, because men just take care of business on the phone, but if there`s a woman in it, I go & look for another phone box, because I know that she`ll be talking on & on about nothing for ages.
12/04/10 anne
5
karlosthejackel

karlosthejackel

All woman are idiots. If we could reproduce ourselves, evolution would eventually get rid of their whinging kind. Seriously, what do woman bring to the world that us 'MEN' dont.
GRR!
20/01/10 karlosthejackel
7
grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman

I don't gossip much myself, hardly ever in fact.
However the grumpyoldman can "chat" on the phone or in person for hours!
08/02/09 grumpyoldwoman
4
Female Boss

Female Boss

Knock, knock, can I come in please? I ask that because I feel like I'm intruding into a place where a group of males are gassing away about females. Anyway, as you would expect, I, as a female, would like to balance things out a bit. First of all you'll be glad to hear that I agree with you on the whole but, as I'm no gossiper myself, understand that not all females should be tarred with the same brush. It is not a female phenomenom. However, neither should all males be assumed to be non gossipers because many of them are and some worse than females. I have first hand experience of this and see it everyday at work. Maybe diet is spoken about so often, male diets are a visual thing in our place of work ...... I see them stuffing their faces with food all day long !
07/02/09 Female Boss
-13
O-range

O-range

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."

-Eleanor Roosevelt
13/12/08 O-range
3

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