Boy Culture Meets Workplace

Jordana Willner

Originally published San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, December 5, 1999

VOLLEYBALL NETS, Nerf balls, postmodern office equipment, and eighteen- hour workdays. Some call it the workplace of the next generation. I call it the proliferation of boy culture.

Here in the IT heartland, the old boys’ network that closes deals on the golf course is making way for a little boys’ club that does its best thinking while pelting coworkers with Styrofoam darts. Hip young techno-workplaces are being billed as the creative brainchildren of a new generation, but while humanizing sterile cubicle culture sounds like an idea for everyone, gadgets and gizmos are little more than a slice of paradise, boy style. Who other than affluent, hedonistic boys could conceive of a workplace with sports, weapons, games, and beer? Only boys, and especially those attracted to the gaming, problem-solving nature of technology careers, could choose to surround themselves with the recreational gadgetry of their pre-adolescent fantasies. Consequently, the modern high tech office is still a surprisingly male- defined place, where, instead of business suits and attache cases, success is built with Lego's and Northface backpacks.

At the computer services department of the SF-based corporation where I work, the techie boys are an elite group who believe their cutting edge database development is far more vital to human survival than even those know-nothing doctors who can't read the simplest lines of code. These young Gods troubleshoot and play, passing the time between client calls and happy hours with X-rated boy dialect, toxic-proof boy beverages, palm-sized plastic boy toys, and boy games. (Boy games can involve everything from suggestive pseudonyms in Internet chat rooms, to prank telephone calls, to in-cubicle betting, to scanning the digital image of a coworker onto every available surface in the building.) The boy culture in my office intrigued me from the start, as I was unaccustomed to the fantastical quality of the modern young office. I was never privy to their peculiar brands of games and jokes, yet I was always fascinated that, while we girls spent a lot of time sitting around discussing what to do, boys almost always seemed occupied. Much as they do now.

The boys in my office are some of the hardest working, hardest playing people I've ever met. Their workdays know no boundaries, and even if lunchtime finds them imbibing, midnight often finds them troubleshooting. This more than full-time commitment is impressive, and it provides some insight into why boys are defining the office culture. Boys are the majority in offices like mine, both in numbers and in on-site hours. Whereas even our hardest working women head home to balance a multitude of personal responsibilities, the boys are dedicating such large portions of their lives to their jobs that they naturally invest their personalities and interests into the office culture - because it is their world. My female colleague who winds up working every Sunday comes to the office to do her work and then leaves to resume her life. In contrast, the boys who work comparable hours to hers socialize together after-hours. If she stayed, they would most likely welcome her; I note little discrimination from the boys other than the obvious necessity of being present to learn their inside jokes as they occur. It just happens that some of us have priorities elsewhere.

None of the boys at work agree with my assessment of their work culture. They cite women with toys as evidence that games at work are natural cross-gender stress relievers, and they see the modern office culture as a simple product of androgynous young energy.

But what they miss is that the Slinky on my desk is not my own natural expression of fun; it's simply my attempt at cultural assimilation. Just as my mother once wore masculine business suits to be taken seriously in a man's corporate culture, I'm learning the modern games so I can be one of the guys. I participate in their lunches, ask them polite questions, and occasionally intercept an airborne rubber frog, all in the hopes of fitting in. I appreciate that they attribute no gender bias to their activities, but I must admit that, at my most creative, I would never custom design an office to include plastic weaponry or Marvin the Martian paraphernalia. A feminized workplace might instead include fewer toys and more lounge spaces, with couches strategically placed to foster relaxed, team-building dialogue.

Instead of the quarterly subsidized all-you-can-drink beerfests we currently receive, I might vie for healthy catered lunches, a visiting masseuse, or a day at the spa. And ultimately, I believe girl culture would expedite the business day so that all the work was done while still balancing in our equally important non-professional endeavors. In boy culture, however, balance is often absent. Work is the center of their world, where all intellectual and recreational activities can exist. And with lucrative salaries, the latest technology, a community, a purpose, and a future, they do indeed seem to have all they need.

The boys in my office amuse me, earn my respect for their indisputable technical prowess, and stir my envy for having found careers and work environments so conducive to their happiness. They may enjoy a long and prosperous corporate reign, or they may find that the modern workplace is still open to interpretation. Boy culture may not be for everyone, but one thing it teaches is that with enthusiasm and commitment, workplaces can be molded to reflect their workers.

This round of office re-engineering goes to the boys. Round 2 is still anyone's game.

--Jordana Willner wrote a monthly "Next Generation" column for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999, 2000, and 2001