Co-workers and their views about bikers

[Speedbag]

even better... work around children. i walk into a classroom with helmet in hand, im a superhero.

Add a cape for extra effect. 

[duc_fan]

Coworkers are a mixed bag.  I had a boss that was a fellow Ducatisti once.  Best year of my career.  Then he got promoted and I got a total neurotic douche for a manager.  He didn't understand bikes.  I didn't try to convince him, and we never argued about it... but for that and a variety of other reasons, we just didn't get along (biggest reason: the workplace was his god... above friends, family, even his wife).  Someone mentioned earlier that some people may be threatened by those of us who are willing to take risks.  That may have been the case with this guy.  He was a neurotic ninny and always worried.  Taking a big physical risk in order to go enjoy something was beyond his comprehension.

My manager now doesn't ride, but he doesn't give me guff about it.  He's got his own taste in risky outdoor sports.

But yeah, coworkers are a mixed bag.  Some ride, some are even Ducatisti, others don't (but wish they did), and then there's the nervous ninny types.  Thankfully I don't have to put up with a lot of them.

Last year I battled cancer.  Now when I get guff about the motorcycle, I can tell people I've already stared death in the face.  Life is short, so enjoy it.  When your time is up, it won't matter whether you're skydiving, riding a motorcycle, driving a Volvo, or ensconced in an M-1 Abrams tank.

Pick your risks and figure out your mitigation strategies accordingly.  You can lie in bed all day and risk death by cancer and heart disease.  Or you can get out there and be active, risking death in other ways.  I choose to live.

[koko64]

Well put, and cheers .

[duc_fan]

Forgot to mention... one coworker I recently met has been shopping on-again-off-again for a Monster.  He stopped by my desk when he saw the pic of my former 900SS, and we BS'd about bikes for a while.  I gave him fair warning: "you will get nothing but encouragement and temptation from me!" 

[red baron]

even better... work around children. i walk into a classroom with helmet in hand, im a superhero.

Another life let down when they learn the helmet is to protect you from yourself.....

[ab]

let me play the devils advocate for a moment...you don't give a rats ass about what your co-workers or bosses say about them seeing you ride the way that you did ( which to them seemed aggressive-regardless of how it was in reality)...these are people to whom you are forced to have a report with and communicate with....your willingness to dismiss arrogantly ( which is how I read the origional post) does close certain doors for you.

1) if they are/were looking for a long  term employee to invest in and promote, are they going to look at the team player who is safe and productive and predictable that they can count on for being there? of course they are, because risk assesment is an integral part of people when they look at you as an employee.

2) whether they can understand it or not, but did you make an attempt to explain the dynamics of perhaps why you might have been doing what you were at that moment so as to possibly lessen the impression of aggression? that could be one of the moments where perhaps you open a door of complexity that might not have been opened, regardless of how likely it really might or might not have been. use the idea of physics and dynamics as a way to bridge that gap.

just some food for though when you have an "in your face-I don't care" flagrant attitude...

I used to think like that and worry about it. But then I stopped. Life is short.  I will ride as I normally do and won't change it because of coworkers.  I am no longer an ambassador for the sport.   I did try to explain that was not even close to aggressive ride and leaning a bike is part of the fun of riding.  But he just didn't get it.  He can't understand why when I am
On bike I assume every car is out to kill me.  He says that isn't the case.  I explain everyday we encounter close calls. His reply was we deserve it since we go to fast and endanger others.  It's a lost cause.  If a boss acts based on my riding then so be it.  I do make fun of  him very lightly about golfing occasions  but he def takes the bike hate way too much.  Oh well.

[koko64]

+1 brother. Your boss is a dickhead. Invite me to the next office party .

[jsd2]

I get a lot of "just be careful" and "cars don't see you" speeches at work but it is mostly because my coworkers don't want to see me get hurt.  I also get a lot of stories about people they know that were injured on a motorcycle.  I am an avid whitewater kayaker and when people see pictures of my kayaking I definitely hear more about the kayaking than the motorcycle.  People I work with pretty much tell me I am crazy for kayaking and I think they are surprised after each kayak trip that I have made it home in one piece.  Once, after I had received a promotion, I had a boss imply that now that I had the new job I should really take things slower and not do things that he considered dangerous.  Besides the mc and the kayaking he suggested I give up playing hockey.  I pretty much ignored him and I ended getting a new boss soon after that.  I also had someone at work tell me I was stupid because I went on a solo backpacking trip this summer.  I am ok with people not really understanding what I am about, there is not much I can do about it.

Jim

[Skybarney]

^^^One more reason to not work for other people.........  The other reasons?  I am unemployable.  Never had a real job but once and I never wanted one again.

[duc_fan]

I would choose not to work for other people, if I could figure out how to make money at something else.

As Scott Adams pointed out in a recent WSJ op-ed, it's not the ideas, it's the execution.  I just have no idea how to execute any of my ideas.  So I make my way to the cubicle farm every day and leave the execution up to someone else.

Maybe someday I'll figure it out.

[ducatigirl100]

At work I'm known as  "Isabelle, the girl whit the red bike in front of the building"....    there's always 30 workers who smoke in front of the building......and they all know its my bike..... best anti thief ever 

[DarkMonster620]

At work I'm known as  "Isabelle, the girl whit the red bike in front of the building"....    there's always 30 workers who smoke in front of the building......and they all know its my bike..... best anti thief ever 

tous apelle Isabelle? Joli nom !!!

[ducatigirl100]

tous apelle Isabelle? Joli nom !!!

Tanks

[memper]

^Reason #347 why Bruce Springsteen is the only boss I listen to. 

I prefer Tony Danza myself...

[Bonster]

even better... work around children. i walk into a classroom with helmet in hand, im a superhero.

Or teenagers.  I work with so-called troubled youth and it gives instant cred.  Not that it's necessary they "like" you, but at the same time teens tend not to take in information from adults they have no regard for.

As far as what my colleagues think, I think I'm just a curiosity at best.  In general, those of us on bikes are conscious of how we think others perceive us.  Meanwhile, others are busy being oblivious.  Sometimes they come up for air to cast a judgement like the OP's boss.