Dork Whisperer

Step back please, you are in my personal space. A bit further. Perfect.

From my Twitter feed today:
@frankroche: Common trait of many #sxswi attendees: Lack of body awareness. Hey, you're not on your mom's couch, dorks. Look around.

We are still a generation back from the new generation taking over our personal space. There are enough of us still around that remember working in an office and having to behave, dress appropriately, smell nice and generally be able to socialize without screaming out all in UPPERCASE in real life.

Times are A'Changin'

More and more of us are working as sub-contractors from our own home offices and studios, the interaction we do have are mostly online and on the phone. Rarely do we have to actually meet and interact over coffee or face to face at a conference table. There are pluses and minuses to this, the pluses are we don't have to do as much dry cleaning and use less gas, the minuses are that we start to loose our social office skills.

Dork Intervention

What we need are Dork Whisperer classes for the virtual worker bee. A Cesar Millan of Dork Training. How to behave, how to not squeeze yourself next to your client when you do see them, how to sit properly, what not to have up on your laptop screen when you show them work (that screen saver of you holding a light saber in your speedo is not appropriate) - generally how to behave in public without making yourself a virtual virtual worker bee.

So mind your P's and Q's and give a 2 foot space around anyone you talk to, people are not monitors and you don't need to be that close to them, they can hear you fine and they don't need to know what you ate for breakfast.

Image: Ophelia Chong / Frankie