Nothing ever makes me laugh anymore, sad but true, but this did. True story.
Our employees work mostly from home, but the company has an office in the
boondocks of the outskirts of Tinytown in
São Paulo. I’ve never seen the office,
but I imagine it to be bare bones, a couple of desks, a couple of outdated
computers and a couple of dedicated people.
On a good day there’s toilet paper in the bathroom.
One of the decrepit computers has a loose wireless card. You
remember the old desktop computers with card slots and one or two tiny screws
that hold the card in place. Yes, one of those.
Anyway the wireless card on one of the computers was loose and Ada used
every utensil in the office on the loose screw in various failed attempts to
secure the card in place. Whether the
intermittent wireless service was more annoying than the taunting she received
for her inability to tighten a screw is something you are going to have to ask
her. After much taunting from her fellow
workers she decided what she needed was a knife. A butter knife, a pocket knife, a letter
opener any sort of knife would do. She ransacked the office from top to
bottom. No knife. She then had the idea to go to the corner bakery where she is a regular customer, they couldn’t begrudge her a knife.
She walked to the counter and had the following exchange:
Ada: “Hi, could I borrow a knife, I’ll bring it right back.”
Baker: “Sure, why do you need a knife?”
Ada: “To tighten a screw on a computer.”
Baker: “…Why didn’t you ask for a screwdriver then?”
Ada: “…Years of female stereotype social conditioning force me to request a kitchen utensil to do manly work…?”
