Men's Group

Professionalism is what I think you perceive as missing from this exchange. I'm not sure that it was so much a woman saying these things, but rather anyone saying these things in such an environment.

But then, that's the issue. Professionalism, what all good corporate offices aspire to, is a completely unnatural way of carrying oneself and your reaction to it is, oddly, unnatural in the scope of normal human interaction. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable to have this reaction in a professional workplace.

Professionalism is the idea that people, once they walk into a corporate setting, are stripped of their persona and must replace it with a robotic, impersonal bearing. Those of us who are at least somewhat successful at "leaving our non-work stuff" at the door will be taken aback by people who have the unmitigated nerve to personally share their outside of work experiences using their outside of work personas.

I've always found it a bit amusing that we aren't taken aback by the unnatural environment of the corporate workplace while we are in it, rather we are more taken aback by what would be completely normal outside of that environment.