Be Happy Anyway

Be Happy Anyway
From Brave Girls Club

Friday, February 24, 2012

The Other Day I Heard...

...a colleague who teaches at the college where I work say some thing peculiar to me. It may not be to you so here it goes.

Most of the evening instructors work only part time because they are retired or work full-time jobs in the morning. The woman who works in the classroom that adjoins mine works elsewhere during the day. Yesterday the weather was behaving strangely, starting out at a pleasant 50-something degrees and ending in the windy 30s by the time we came to work that night.

We were both commenting on the weather as people who are just getting to know each other do when she said told me about her lunch. She said, that around 11 o'clock, her cubemate and she went out to get something for lunch and enjoyed the weather so much that they sat outside to eat. As I was driving home last night, my mind started spinning and was still whirring away this morning at the grocery store. I was pondering the word - CUBEMATE.

It's not that I have never heard this term before, having worked in an office briefly where there were cubicles. What puzzled me was why she called her co-worker her cubemate. Does that imply that the two women are closer than coworkers but not close enough to be called friends? There are so many other things she could have said:
  • coworker
  • colleague
  • friend
  • mate (for my Aussie pals)
  • acquaintance (probably not if they work side by side)
  • she could have left the person out of the story since she had no bearing on the weather comment
So my question to  you is, when does a person you spend everyday, back to back or side by side, 8+ hours a day in an 8 foot by 8 foot space that you choose to lunch with....when does that person become your friend?

Just askin'.

6 comments:

miruspeg said...

Interesting word "cubemate".....I like it!
Annemarie I think this person is her friend. "Cubemate" has the word "mate" included in the word so according to this Aussie they are probably good buddies.
Take care and big hugs
Pegs xxxxxx

PS I am still in the "land of the long white cloud"

Tricia Buice said...

I think they work well together as a team or they could not stand that much togetherness. Nice question, great word! Hope you are well

MJ said...

Interesting. I've never heard of "cubemate" but I've been pondering it in the context of other mates that I've had: classmate, roommate, housemate. To me, it isn't about friendship (which contains emotional linkages) but more about physical proximity which requires some level of contact including required/expected tolerance of the other's behaviours.

Pamela King said...

Great topic. I'm with MJ. I think it has something to do with proximity and frequency/consistency of contact. No pun intended, but the description sort of boxes their relationship. Interesting. Thanks for brain tickler.

Marit said...

*teehee*... such a person is my BELOVED!

Roban said...

Cubemate... has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Much friendlier than colleague or co-worker. I think it does indicate a friendship, as opposed to just two people who work together. It's probably a nice feeling to be someone's cubemate rather than their co-worker. In fact, I may have to call the other teachers on my team "hallmates."

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