I’ve been working in cubicals now for pretty close to 13 years now. Sure, they weren’t all nice, fabric coated interiors, but most places I’ve worked didn’t subscribe to a “studio” setting at all.
I think you’d understand if I told you that I never have really felt like I fit in very well at most offices I’ve worked. You might feel this way, too. I’ve tried my best to fit in, and do my work, but the whole time I’ve been Goth on the Inside.
I don’t know when I made it up, but it’s what I think of as a technique to survive the fluorescent lights, all staff emails, and homogeneous work areas. Basically, if you love some sort of sub-culture and have to keep it secret at work, you’re “Goth on the Inside” too.
It isn’t directly tied to any pure black-eyeliner “Gothness”; it can be anything that wouldn’t be totally celebrated by your workplace upper management. It could be video games, your death metal band, your comic book passion, your paintings, your Harry Potter Fanfic or your collection of the Sisters of Mercy.
We’re all goth on the inside, just trying to survive.
I don’t judge, and neither do other Office Goths.
- Daniel
No related posts.
As an English major working in the Aerospace/Defense industry, I am the POSTER BOY for OFFICE GOTH!
NO ONE understands me where I work, but they’re ALL AFRAID of me!!!
So, I can’t complain…
I tell people at the office I like ska (which is true, I love it), but in fact, I have a deeper penchant for Black Metal and will listen to Slayer more often than the Two-Tone Lizard Kings.
I also avoid mentioning I play Tabletop RPGs…
The good thing is that when those little things get discovered, people assume I’m weird because I’m french. But no, I’m just weird AND french…
This one made me laugh out loud…but I will not sully that moment by writing “LOL”.
But please know it was a hearty guffaw.
how great is this!
a few weeks back i thought of making a web page dedicated to my well hidden yet very real “dark side”.
i had already come up with a name that, to me, expressed exactly how i felt: inspired by the “intel inside” slogan, i called it “goth inside”.
this evening i was all set to start putting together the contents, when i realized: “hey, would anyone else feel this way? and if so, could it possibly be that they had already dedicated a web page to it?”
so i googled the 2 magic words “goth” and “inside” and surely enough, there it was. there yoù were.
what acknowledgement! feels all “warm inside” now. a dark side glowing.