4 ms·

Hmm. I'm actually struggling to think of a situation where it would be the done thing to call one of your colleagues "princess", be they male or female.

• jschwartzi 9y ago
  If you know them well enough that they understand that you're joking, then it's probably okay. If you're not sure, then don't. I do have female friends at the office who might find that funny, but only because we know each other and we give each other as good as we get. The difference is that we are friends not just colleagues, which is on a different level, interpersonally.
  • ant6n 9y ago
    I feel like I would prefer a more professional work environment, even if it's less funny.
    • axlprose 9y ago
      Unfortunately, the problem with "professional" relationships is that they're not very good at fulfilling the social needs of humans. It's practical to keep things professional in order to avoid drama, but when you work all day and work is the main place you get to interact with other people, it can get a bit depressing. And this is partially the reason why things like "company culture" and "culture-fit" come about, but obviously it's a hard and tricky problem to solve.
      • jschwartzi 9y ago
        Yes. I don't really fit in at places where I don't have some kind of personal relationship with my co-workers. We don't stand in front of the whole office and make fun of each other, but when we're at lunch or in private we do play a little. Expecting people to robotically conform to an idealized notion of "professionalism" creates sterile workplaces. You spend enough time with someone and you will eventually become friends with them, co-worker or not.
      • watwut 9y ago
        Then again, workplace is not meant to fulfill your social needs as a human. People who are fun to socialize with and people who are pleasant to work with are very different people. One can be fun and pleasant friend while not so reliable college. Professionalism is what allows you to work together despite being very different people with different interests and personalities. Fun workplaces tend to discriminate against those who are different on personal level regardless of their actual skills and contributions.
        • axlprose 9y ago
          > workplace is not meant to fulfill your social needs as a human It's not, but when it takes up the majority of your waking life at ~60-80hrs/wk, it's not an unreasonable expectation, especially for the mental well-being of the workers. And so long as the trend continues towards longer work hours, there really doesn't seem to be much of a humane way to deal with that added stress otherwise, despite all the obvious drawbacks you mentioned. The ideal of course, would be to shorten the workday. Unfortunately, inertia seems to be working very much against that possible solution.
          • watwut 9y ago
            If it takes 60-80hrs/wk, then you need a better workplace regardless of nature of communication. Unless you plan to live like monk (meaning no family no friends out of work) - beware tho, monks have pretty much guaranteed membership for life you do not. Yes, my observation is the same - the people who spend 60-80hrs at work do take all their socialization into workplace. Meaning they waste time of people who want to work at work and then go home - either because of kids or because of aging relative or because of anything else including hobbies. The above is one more reason to avoid fun cultural workplaces. They tend to want all of you, not just your work.
    • watwut 9y ago
      I wonder why this was downvoted. I have the same preference.
• masklinn 9y ago
  If they are a genuine princess (not necessarily outlandish if you live in a place which 1. still has royalty and 2. has a pretty down-to-earth one — after all we've recently learned Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands moonlights as a commercial co-pilot) — or if they come to work wearing a tiara, or if they ask you?
  • to3m 9y ago
    But when you're talking to a princess you would typically use the form Your Highness, or similar. Anyway, I was thinking of the sorts of situations that actually turn up, on average, for most people. There are only so many princesses to go round, a tiara is highly unusual office garb, and I've never heard of anybody asking to be called "princess" in a professional capacity, at least not in white collar work such as Google. I stand by my rule of thumb. My difficulty thinking up situations was based on my experiences of being at work, which are of course unique, but not, I suspect, especially unusual. (But if we're trying to think of unlikely possibilities, what about if Princess is your colleague's name? Though given your reply, I expect you're the sort of pedantic so-and-so who'd actually notice that I deliberately quoted it in lower case to sidestep this one.)
    • detaro 9y ago
      Google has a security manager with the title of "Security Princess": https://twitter.com/laparisa https://twitter.com/laparisa (but yes, clearly exceptional case)
• mcgrath_sh 9y ago
  We played Mario Kart at our office Christmas party. My colleague was racing as Princess Peach. I made a remark saying "Princess Peach over here..." Other than that, I cannot think of a single place that is appropriate.