Idiosyncrasy
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We have these sippy cups, large sizes, bright colors, with tops that screw on to keep stuff from spilling. My daughter's 6 and perfectly capable of using a cup, but once in awhile she wants to have one of these cups. No big deal and I'm happy to fill them with juice or milk, but there's a catch. The red one requires the yellow top. The purple or green ones can have the green tops, but never the two shall mix.
My little son wears pants all the time. Even when it's as hot as fill-in-your-own-place-here, year around, he wants to wear pants. And mostly just soft, athletic, jump-suit type pants. And hooded, zip-up sweatshirts. He might stray to jeans once every few weeks, but rarely. He also usually wants his syrup or ketchup to come in a ramekin. If I drop it on the plate, it's not a big deal, but he often requests the extra dish ahead of time.
I'm not much better. Most of you that have met me know I tend to dress like the guy in grad school on the ten year plan that gets by with the T-shirts he got 2 or 3 years in. I might occasionally dress up for the women in my life or wear a polo for SSC, but it's rare. But I also wear shoes and a belt pretty much the whole time I'm not in bed. My wife thinks I'm a little strange in that regard, but she puts up with it well.
We're all idiosyncratic. There are things unique to each of us, kind of a signature that our family, friends, and co-workers know. Like the person that straightens everything on his desk to right angles. The individual that can't function with the mouse on the right side, etc. If we get along, these can be a great source of practical jokes and they're good to laugh about. If we don't, these things can destroy the synergies of a good working environment and actual hurt our productivity.
I meet a variety of different people in this job, from many companies, locations, and even types of work. It's amazing to me how different we all are. Most of us fit a stereotype in some ways, but are completely different in others. And I'm amazed how often my impression of someone in email, which is right in many ways, is completely off in others when we sit down for a cup of coffee or a beer.
I'm going round and round, but the point is we have to put aside those idiosyncrasies that bother us in a work environment if we want to have great careers together.
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I have a coworker that for all the meals that he eats, he has to finish each food type on his plate before going to the next one. Like if he has a burger and fries, he has to eat all the fries and then goto the burger next.
I'm sure that it means something like he has to finish each task before starting another and that he cannot do parallel tasks or something like that.
Live to Throw
Throw to Live
Will Summers -
Yes we're all stange in our own different way. I work with four foreign nationals and they have their own view of what's "normal". As there are more of them and only one Texans (me), I guess that makes me the outsider. But I do enjoy the different perspectives.
To quote a not so famous Jerry Jeff Walker song...
I'm not stange
I'm just like you
I like to do what normal people do
I like to smoke, drink and have fun
Jump in a Lincoln and see how fast it will run.
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You are unique...
... just like everyone else.
Oddities make people interesting. Even regarding people whose style of dress or choice of hobbies are something that I never would consider, I'm glad that not everyone is like me.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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That's too funny. I once dated a girl who ate like that. It was simply how she was raised.
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I mix corn, mashed potatoes and butter together or baked beans, mashed potatoes and ground black pepper together. It is not because I was raised that way I just found out that the food combinations had a different appealing taste and texture. So to add to the mix what may seem idiosyncratic might not be that. It may not be derived from your 'nurture' or your 'cultural' background. There may actually be a totally different reason behind the 'practice'. It might even be a logical one for it at that !
By the way, today is 'physical' Thursday and the editorial reads like 'logical' Friday. Nice change of pace Steve. Can you guess one of my 'other' idiosyncracies ?
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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'no'
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Karma, I guess that you idiosyncrasy is long-windedness ...
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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"Normal" is just a setting on the dryer.
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Hmm, that's actually something I've been thinking about myself recently. I actually wrote on my blog about my own unusual behaviors (I See Tiny People), but I hadn't thought about them in terms of my work environment. Being in a cube farm, it's definitely something to be conscientious of. Maybe I should pay more attention my constant leg-bouncing.
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"The only normal people are are ones you don't know very well."
Alfred Adler
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I find it amazing (OK, I am easy to amaze sometimes) that we all have unique fingerprints. And now of course we know we have unique DNA. And I find it amazing that in a crowd of many thousands of people (think Disneyland, or even a far away airport bustling with people) I can see someone and instantly recognize that this is someone I know.
So I guess its not too surprising we are different in many other ways as well. Good thing too, since as someone once said "If two people are totally alike, one of them is redundant. "
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In my mind, there's a fine line between idiosyncractic behaviors and obsessive compulsive ones. Take me for instance, I count steps everywhere I go (more stairs than just plain old walking steps - although I do know that between the cracks on the sidewalk to and from the area that I smoke at there are 7, 5, and 3 steps between the cracks
). My rationalization for counting stairs is that some day everywhere I go the power will go out and I'll need to know how many stairs there are so that I won't break my neck in the dark. Idiosyncratic or OCD? You decide. As far as one of the original posts concerning food-eating order, I work with a couple of folks that take it a step further and can't let any of their foods touch. Again, you decide. Me, I just mash it all up and dig in 'cause it's all going to the same place anyway. As for work, there are times when I have to have the mouse pointer exactly lined up creating either a 90 degree angle or the top and bottom of the mouse touching - and not going over - the top and bottom of an OK button. I like this topic because it's one of those things that sometimes helps the day go by watching for people's little "ticks". It's also amusing to sometimes take that right angle and skew it just so, sit back, and wait for the show! (insert evil grin). -
I think if you can control it and not fall apart if things don't go well, it's idiosyncratic. If it stops you from functioning, it's OCD.
Despite my daughter's attempts to convince the cups MUST have the correct tops, she's survived the meal. So I'm holding on to the hope it's just a quirk.
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Sounds like most of the examples listed are more like habits than anything else, which I find everyone has plenty of.
I'm guilty of far too many; I like to keep all the different types of food separate on my plate, and spend ages separating them out before eating; most of my house looks like it's full of clutter, yet I keep telling everyone I know where all my stuff is, (yeah right
); how I have almost exactly the same meals on certain days of the week, every week; how I'll eat tomato sauce but not tomatoes themselves; how I keep having to explain why I don't like lettuce and pasta because of their taste, ("but they don't taste of anything!").At work, most people's idiosyncrasies I can accept, though you can take it to extremes; whispering to yourself just loud enough for co-workers, (me!), to hear is my main bugbear at the moment. What would everyone consider as going too far?
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