My friends and I were sharing our cringe moments last night, those sudden moments of uncomfortable awkwardness where all parties involved, even spectators, are equally mortified and pretty much nothing can salvage the damage done. Have any you?d like to share? Let?s spread the cringe!
Mine occurred when I was a supervisor in a warehouse for fairly upscale fashion retailer. I was in my late 20s, half-black and Hispanic, and had been in the industry for about a decade at that point, but most of the other supervisors fit this particular retailer?s target demographic: privileged, white 20-somethings just out of college with about four minutes experience in the real world, sorry, ?young professionals.? Needless to say, they were very opinionated, sometimes to the point of outright smug haughtiness; it was rare we got along on a personal level.
One day, a new female supervisor was hired; she was new to the world too, but much more down to earth. Somehow the subject of tattoos came up, specifically lower-back tattoos, to which another female supervisor made it clear that ?tramp stamps? were ?just trashy? and something to the effect of ?you might was well tattoo ?I?m a slut? on your forehead.? The new girl and I gave no opinion, least of all one that acidic, just kinda shrugged it off. Fast forward all of 3 minutes, and the new girl bent over to pick up some trash, and her shirt came up a bit revealing? a lower-back tattoo. The other female supervisor saw it the same time I did; her eyes and mouth made three, huge perfect circles of horror. She spun on her heels and speed walked back to her office like she was clenching a violent turd. The new girl stood up and asked innocently where the other girl had gone so quickly; I was stunned, didn?t know what to say, but seeing as we all three now knew what we all three now knew, I played it cool and just said ?well, I guess I don?t have to tell you [the other girl] is a ***** now, do I?? She got a confused look like she didn?t know what I was talking about, so the onus was then on ME to tame the elephant in the room. I couldn?t think of any way to gloss over it, so I just told her I saw her tattoo (intentionally leaving out the fact that the other girl had too,) and let her fill in the blanks. A second later, she just smirked and said ?fuck yeah; she?s a *****.? It was on that day that I met my first work wife; I finally had someone to hate my co-workers with.
Mine occurred when I was a supervisor in a warehouse for fairly upscale fashion retailer. I was in my late 20s, half-black and Hispanic, and had been in the industry for about a decade at that point, but most of the other supervisors fit this particular retailer?s target demographic: privileged, white 20-somethings just out of college with about four minutes experience in the real world, sorry, ?young professionals.? Needless to say, they were very opinionated, sometimes to the point of outright smug haughtiness; it was rare we got along on a personal level.
One day, a new female supervisor was hired; she was new to the world too, but much more down to earth. Somehow the subject of tattoos came up, specifically lower-back tattoos, to which another female supervisor made it clear that ?tramp stamps? were ?just trashy? and something to the effect of ?you might was well tattoo ?I?m a slut? on your forehead.? The new girl and I gave no opinion, least of all one that acidic, just kinda shrugged it off. Fast forward all of 3 minutes, and the new girl bent over to pick up some trash, and her shirt came up a bit revealing? a lower-back tattoo. The other female supervisor saw it the same time I did; her eyes and mouth made three, huge perfect circles of horror. She spun on her heels and speed walked back to her office like she was clenching a violent turd. The new girl stood up and asked innocently where the other girl had gone so quickly; I was stunned, didn?t know what to say, but seeing as we all three now knew what we all three now knew, I played it cool and just said ?well, I guess I don?t have to tell you [the other girl] is a ***** now, do I?? She got a confused look like she didn?t know what I was talking about, so the onus was then on ME to tame the elephant in the room. I couldn?t think of any way to gloss over it, so I just told her I saw her tattoo (intentionally leaving out the fact that the other girl had too,) and let her fill in the blanks. A second later, she just smirked and said ?fuck yeah; she?s a *****.? It was on that day that I met my first work wife; I finally had someone to hate my co-workers with.