WordPress Daily Prompt  —  Deplete

We’ve all done it, haven’t we?  Said something we regret later.  I am many things – a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a colleague (at least I was until I retired), and a feminist.  And, because of all that I am, I really should have known better.  I should have.  But I didn’t.  And what was my transgression?  I made a sexist joke.  I made a joke about the inadequacies of men.  At work.  In my public (civil) service job; the public service being the very birthplace of political correctness.  And the joke was made about my boss.  In fact, I made the joke to my boss!  My male boss!

And like the chauvinist pig that I am, I was the one who took offense when my sexism was called out.  Yep, it sucked big time.  I have been consumed with guilt ever since.  So consumed with guilt that I must pay for my sins through a public outing.  So I expect you all to tell me how atrociously I behaved.

“So what happened?” I hear you ask.  Or maybe, you are reading this and thinking, “No, best stop right there, Tracy.”  The latter is generally what my children think.  “Don’t go there, mum” is the way they’ve described it to me.  I think you are starting to get the idea that the only place I’m going, is on a hiding to nowhere.

Now, where was I?  Oh, right.  My boss was giving me 50 million things to do, so I said to him, “Look Gary, can you please stop giving me more work.  I’m like a bloke [Australian slang for man].  I can’t multi-task.  I can only do one thing at a time.”  Naturally I thought, clearly erroneously, that Gary would have heard the news reports that week about the research showing that multi-tasking actually reduced productivity, and that there was very little difference between the sexes on their capacity to multi-task.

Sometimes I’m too busy – for example, unscrambling my rambling thoughts – to notice other people’s reactions, but I distinctly noticed Gary’s sharp intake of breath.  And then he admonished me for my inappropriate remark.  He didn’t say it, but the message was clear – if he had said something equivalent, then he would have been in trouble for being sexist, so by implication I had better watch myself because I would be up on report if I continued with the sexist remarks.  Not that I’m trying to excuse my unacceptable behaviour, but personally, I think he was over-reacting.  Just a tad.  I think I may have pricked his pride because his office wasn’t known among the team as the black hole for nothing.

I digress.  I apologise profusely to my gentlemen readers.  I’m embarrassed and full of remorse about the sexist remark.   Did I think I could get away with it because I’m a woman?  What was I thinking?  Clearly, I wasn’t thinking at all.  I can’t decide whether it was this incident or the time I called my boss a f**king idiot that spelled the end to my career aspirations.  Admittedly, I was hypoglycaemic on that latter occasion.  I do think diabetic hypos have depleted my brain cells, making me more prone to Foot in Mouth disease, and also sexism apparently.

25 thoughts on “The Day I Had a Brain F**t”

  2. 😂I also have diagnosed hypoglycemia and it’s a real thing to say things you may regret in the “throes” of an episode! And I personally am sick of having to be PC all time … to the point I am not! 😘

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  4. I laughed while reading your post Tracy, because it certainly amusingly written. Oh how many times I’ve said something I regretted later (and still think about to this day) but I don’t think I’ve offended my boss-well not intentionally, at least. Maybe the second misdemeanour was worse than the first!

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    1. The second one is certainly the one I regret most, Jane. Terribly unprofessional. Although, I wasn’t within my right mind at the time, unlike the first time. However, being hypo is being a bit like being drunk. Sometimes what I really think, just pops out. Still I don’t want to hide the real me, because like it or not, I’ve unfortunately hurt some people when I’ve been ‘low’.

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  5. It is so easy to say something offensive, I think, and the only way to deal with it is to apologize and move on. That being said, I think we have all wanted to call our bosses a f**king idiot at one time or another……

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  7. Well, sooner or later someone should have stepped forward and claimed about the way how he assigned the tasks to his team. It’s always hard to be the first person to do that. Sexist joke? It was just like a sputum that spat in the public. You apologized already so hope you don’t hold it in your heart any longer. 🙂

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  8. I think the idiot boss should get over himself. If he couldn’t cope with that remark he must be constantly dealing with being offended. Or is it just women who offend him?

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  9. Seriously, everyone needs to calm the fuck down. It seems like people are LOOKING to get offended these days, so they can feel all righteous about calling the offending party out on it. And then get hundreds of Likes on their stupid meme-filled FB page from mindless sycophantic like-minded “friends” who tut-tut and pat them on the head for being a survivor. Twats, all of ’em.

    Don’t get me wrong, I myself would NEVER say anything at work that would get me in trouble with the bitches…er, ladies. But I can sympathise with you anyway, which why I feel comfortable saying that I think Gary needs to get that stick out of his ass. I also think he may be a Sheila in drag. I mean, you know how sensitive some babes can be about shit like that. That’s Gary. I’d bet my nads on it.

    😉

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