Until very RECENTLY, I didn’t even have pictures of my fur-kids up either. It’s a very conscious decision. I’m private about my family and fiercely protective about our privacy. Being with the company for almost 4 years now, I let my guard down, a little bit. Yes. I did it! I posted one picture EACH of my fur-kids and a silhouette of my spouse.
I have my pictures positioned so that they are only really visible if you are standing all the way in my cube, practically behind my chair. One day, a colleague is in my cube and looks up at my fur-kids and chuckles at the puppy picture of our new Cody (see Our new Addition entry on the blog). My colleague couldn’t contain themself as they blurted out “Your dog looks like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer!” and then proceeds to laugh at their own joke (at mine and my puppy’s expense). I look at the picture and am trying to make sense of their new found joke. The colleague is rather proud of their observation and goes away laughing.
I love the clay-mation adaption of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. However, I was not amused at the comparison of my sweet little Cody. I guess I wasn’t amused because the way it was said was not complimentary, but rather curt. Why did I let it bother me so much? Anal? Maybe. But it proved my point as to why I hadn’t put up personal photos in cube in the first place.
I thought about it some more and this is my rationale (if I needed one). I don’t have children. Colleagues know that. I have three Corgis. Now if a couple doesn’t have kids and has pictures up of their dogs, wouldn’t it stand to reason that their dogs are their kids. Even if you didn’t know that, shouldn’t you be careful as to not offend as many, many people treat their canines, cats, whatever . . . like one of the family — AND THEY ARE.
If someone has a picture of their child in their office/cube, you wouldn’t say something like, “Gee, your kid sure has big ears . . . he looks kinda like Dumbo (uncontrollable laughter)” Right? You wouldn’t say to someone with pictures of their newborn baby that the baby is UGLY. Would you?
No you wouldn’t 😉
