Gossip Pose

At my current job I share an office with two guys. My boss has an office at the other end of the house we work out of, and his wife is next door answering phones. It's a very small non-corporate type gig. Everybody pretty much knows what is going on with everybody, and there's not a lot of room for rumor to circulate. 

At my old job, on the other hand, there was plenty of room. It was a retail gig at the biggest camera retailer in the US, Ritz Camera. I worked in a strip mall store with the manager, and occasionally a part time person. In corporate land there is space to talk about things like what manager is making their numbers, who's on the verge of getting fired, and when the Technical Service Manager is going to come shake the place down. Most of the time I wasn't in on the gossip, but I could always tell when my boss was for one reason: gossip pose. 

Because it was a relatively small crew at our store my boss, Steve, would get his gossip through the phone. Gossip pose consisted of a few defining features: the slightly cocked head cradling the receiver, the opposing hand under the chin, a 45 degree upper body lean over the counter; and most importantly, the single hovering leg bent at the knee. 

If you're having a hard time picturing this, think teenage schoolgirl. This was a brilliant juxtaposition. Steve was what many call a Florida cracker. His family has lived here for generations, and they tend to spend time doing what Steve called armed hiking. To see a grown southern white huntin' man in gossip pose is to truly know that there is balance in the universe.