Safe for Work: Letting That Geek Flag Fly

By JR Pepper

If you had of asked lil’ geeky me at age 17 if I would be working in an office ten years later, I would have likely said something sarcastic and gone about my day.

Thing is, ten years after high school and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I try my best to make sure my clothing is ‘work safe’. I drink caffeine like a fiend. Hell, they even have me sporting a crackberry.

It seems like only yesterday that I was wandering around college with my Sailor Moon pencil case and Trigun notebook.

Cripes, the times they are a-changin’.

Dwight Schrute demonstrates geekdom run amok in the workplace

The industry I work in. . . well, it’s very easy to not fit in. I am very much the type of person that believes work is work. This basically means that I do my best to do my job the right way without revealing too much about myself. They didn’t know about the conventions and I was careful to hide the Final Fantasy fanfare that I played whenever I had my first few successful client interactions.

That all changed with the announcement that X-Files: I Want to Believe was on the horizon. I had acquired a small, desk-sized poster at New York Comic Con that I kept on the wall of my office. Needless, to say they asked questions about it. When the movie came out and it was terrible, I was teased mercilessly.

I kept the geek flag in after that; kept my headphones on and went forward.

I’ve been with this company almost three years now and after all that time I finally, FINALLY, got my own office. It’s so funny how that makes a huge difference. Once I got a little quiet corner of my own, somehow I felt more comfortable there. I happily posted my Dr. Horrible calendar by my desk and started leaving Evangelion wallpapers on my computer desktop.

Why was I embarrassed in the first place? I’ve always been blatantly honest about who I am. I have always been the oddball as far back as I could remember. I used to draw cartoons on every text book and I used to run to the comic book store every Wednesday, still in my uniform. College was no different; I honestly didn’t care what anyone thought about me playing J-Pop on the college radio station. I liked being into the obscure references and, honestly, through revealing bits of my fandoms I’ve met some wonderful people who have become great friends.

As for as revealing it in the work place, I’ve always hesitated. I never wanted them to think of me as that stereotypical geek. I wanted to be judged on the value of my work and my contributions; somehow I worried it would make a difference.

But you know what?

The fact that I have a Serenity patch on my jacket doesn’t mean I don’t kick ass at my job, so why worry?

I’m not saying to go ahead and place the Han Solo in carbonite statue in your office or suggesting that you go to work dressed in a Japanese school uniform. Subtlety is key here. You need to find someone that you know speaks the same language. You need to launch a few subtle hints and see who responds and how.

Most importantly, I’ve learned-once you stop worrying what other people think, suddenly life is a lot more fun.

So now after actually letting that geek flag fly, it turns out one of my coworkers is a pretty big geek as well. I never would have known had I not have made a slight reference either. So now I actually have someone at work to talk to and geek out with and, as a result, a huge collection of Rifftrax to go through courtesy of my fellow geek coworker.

JRPepper, is an artist, photographer, freelance art historian and full-time geek. When not working as a ‘pixel-pusher’ she can be found photographing ghosts, wandering the convention circuits, screaming at her television, bitching about bad film dubbing and consuming large amounts of tea. You can contact her at her website www.pepperart.com or via www.myspace.com/pepperart.

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