• TheSpectreOfGay [hy/hym, she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    ·
    3 days ago

    oh good i wasn’t the only one incredibly concerned

    maybe it’s bc i’ve been on the receiving end of an unrequited crush from someone i barely knew but man that shit just reads as scary to me

  • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    DONT SHIT WHERE YOU EAT.

    To elaborate for those who are going to “but ackshwally,” yes there’s some nuance.

    If you’re in a very large org with different departments, that’s different as long as there’s not power dynamics. So if you’re sales and they’re part of quality assurance, ok, fine. Be normal ask them out and move on. Don’t carry a torch, that’s the one way to really make what could otherwise be a very normal interaction weird.

    Don’t date your boss, don’t date your subordinate, don’t date your peers in your part of the office. If you absolutely have to, then BE NORMAL and just ask them out to get over it quickly and remember that the longer and weirder you make it the more likely you could lose your job in a worst case.

    You’re not Jim and Pam in some slow burn romance. Crushes are for people under the age of 18 (in which case, all the not having sex with coworkers goes out the window if it’s not a real job. The amount of kids who hooked up at the pizza place I worked at… It was high).

    To spell it out: you’re going to have to maintain a professional relationship with this person if they’re not interested OR if you break up. Is it worth it? There are probably many people out there you’re compatible with. Work crushes are inappropriate, especially since they can’t just leave (like, say, some person you hit on in a bar or something). They aren’t there for romance either, they’re there to work.

    P.S. I speak from the fact that I’m at least somewhat socially awkward and the very thought of having to see someone who rejected me or dumped me daily was so crushing I fully embraced don’t shit where you eat mindset. There have been a few coworkers I found attractive, but I never carried a torch or crushed on them since I would never be able to act on it.

      • ChestRockwell [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        It’s not ableism. Autism doesn’t give license to act in a way that makes coworkers uncomfortable. I guess I could use more careful language comrade but I’m sorry, I’m not gonna sanction acting like a creep because you’re autistic. Either ask someone out or find a dating pool where pining and stuff like that is acceptable. It’s not work and it’s not your org. Be professional.

        I’ll say tho, sorry for the “Be normal” - I recognize that normalcy is contingent, but in the workplace being normal is about respect to your fellow worker. If you build up this relationship for months in your mind, the denouement is likely going to be toxic. While there’s places that can be fine, in a workplace you’re putting your coworker in a position where she/he has to decide if they want to keep seeing the person who has been carrying a torch for them every day or not. Yes there’s HR to smooth things over sometimes, but I think it’s still just unfair to you and the other person if you involve them in a long and twisty psychic obsession at a place they need to work at to pay rent, etc. we don’t live in communism where they can just get easily reassigned.

    • CptKrkIsClmbngThMntn [any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      3 days ago

      Crushes are for people under the age of 18

      sadness

      Workplaces aside, sometimes you feel a bit of a something for someone and it’s not the right call to make a move. If it’s destroying you, you obviously have to get some space, but if not sometimes it just makes sense to ride it out. If you accept it, it can be kind of a sweet thing, and sometimes it can settle into a nice sort of platonic attraction.

      • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        To me, a crush requires a certain element of self-destruction that other kinds of attraction don’t. A crush is also very selfish, it kind of objectifies the other person, and doesn’t make them an active part of the relationship building process. I have friends to whom i’m attracted to/admire greatly, but at the same time wouldn’t want to actually be in a relationship with, and I just try not to make my attraction everything about interacting with this person, there’s the shaky ground imo. I’ve had some pretty bad crushes, and it ends up pretty badly for both of us, often with the relationship being poisoned by me allowing it to go unchecked.

        Then, if you’re using crush in a much more lighthearted way like some of my queer friends do, all power to you. Be histrionic and express your love/adoration as loud as you want and to the degree others consent to.

        • CptKrkIsClmbngThMntn [any]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 days ago

          I’m probably more in that latter camp, despite a contentious relationship with my queer identity. “Crush” in my circles doesn’t really have quite as much of a negative connotation but more of an innocent one. A crush is usually new because it’s an unstable position to be in - you either make the move or have to move on eventually.

          I’m poly and pretty sympathetic to relationship anarchy, and I find the straight, monogamous conceptions that dominate our culture very difficult to interface with. It took me a while to put my finger on the reasons that romance in media (films, books, especially songs) very, very rarely tugs on any of my heartstrings.

    • GeneralSwitch2Boycott [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      I dated an autistic coworker and while the relationship didn’t work out afterwards things worked out just fine, so I’m giving everyone permission to take a chance on love at the workplace here. Absolutely nothing bad can happen, actually.

  • DoiDoi [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    3 days ago

    Back in the early days of this site the general megathread contained some of the most off-putting terminally online shit I have ever seen in my life. Fuckin weird ass cuddle threads and all kinds of baby speak. This place has grown for the better but I dont know that we’ll ever be able to fully break away from our creepy ass roots. Sometimes that mega can still hit ya with some full force shit that just makes you close the tab and walk away.

  • peppersky [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    Oh no those socially stunted weirdos get weird about social stuff in our completely asocial society why can’t they just be normal like me

    • gaystyleJoker [she/her]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      i don’t think it’s normal to post about crushes regularly. i would personally be very alarmed that someone i thought was a friend was regularly publishing details of our time together and how they’re developing feelings for me on a public forum that is easily readable by literally anyone, even people with malicious intent. as a woman, it is genuinely scary that an audience could be reading about my life and i would have literally zero clue about it

    • MikeyChaz [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      if the site needs to enact a policy that any kind of posting that might involve other people in our lives be relegated to DM only, then OK

      Yeah, no. This is such a convenient ultimatum that benefits you, it just sounds like you’ll just use this as an excuse to slide into direct messages or make “feeling lonely please dm” posts.

      This is not a serious issue and yet you’re being extremely defensive about something the majority of the website is against whilst playing the smol bean role for sympathy points. Stop posting about crushes, it’s creepy.

      • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        One user responds to inflammatory, kinda witch-hunty, and somewhat ableist post with level-headed, inclusive reasoning.

        1-day-old user responds within minutes, making accusations toward that user, being more hostile, and claiming that the whole site is on their side.

        God I love the culture of this site sometimes.

    • Barabas [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      3 days ago

      Yoshikage Kira was all about appearing unremarkable and normal to the world, so he probably would have said that.

      He also had disdain for the coworkers that hit on him.

      • CthulhusIntern [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        3 days ago

        I think he’s just disdainful towards anyone attracted to him whose hand remains attached? He clearly felt disdainful towards the wife of that guy whose life he stole as well.

        • Barabas [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          3 days ago

          He is disdainful towards everyone, but I thought that him specifically not being interested in work place romance in his introduction was relevant.

          The actual reason is probably that he isn’t interested in women as more than fetish objects and going after his coworkers would be far too conspicuous. But still.

          • CthulhusIntern [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            He probably also doesn’t want to kill any woman he knows, even if he really likes her hands, because that would make anyone investigating start questioning him a bit more.