...at least that's what my kids tell me. And the mirror tells me that too, unless I'm being overly vain. So does my driver's license, because I'm only 36. I still get carded for alcohol when I bother to buy it, and most of the time people are surprised that I have two kids as old as they are because I "look so young".

But apparently I'm old if I take into consideration something a clueless coworker said. We've been answering phone calls from customers all month, and we don't necessarily give our names when we answer these calls. Sometimes it's safer that way and we can keep passing the phone around to each other - it makes our "Call center" sound larger than it is and allows us to take breaks off the phone when we're tired. Customers calling and deciding that they'll wait specifically for one rep doesn't allow for a productive environment. It's a small start up and our call volume and rentals was way larger than anticipated. (Don't worry, I've been screening part timers to come in and help...)

Anyway, one coworker whom I shall call O answered a call yesterday. I was half listening because it was quiet and I was trying to figure out how to phrase something for the post-mortem we're going to do on all of this. So I hear O confirm to the customer that they spoke with a "young sounding woman". He asked if it was one name, and then put the customer on hold.

Here's where things went wrong. He starts asking the only other woman in the office if she remembers this customer and picks on her because there are no notes on the order. The other woman says it could have been me, after all - I'm a little behind on my notes too. O promptly says no, it can't be me because the customer said it was a young sounding woman, and I'm not young.

Excuse me? For those who have heard my voice I guess you can tell me if I'm ready for the nursing home based on it. I don't think that my voice sounds old. The office had gone silent, then someone said "ooooo" and another co-worker encouraged me to hit O.

I sat, I stared, and then I walked out. Silently without reason I walked out, headed for the bathroom and stayed in there to cool my head for a few minutes because I was seriously considering the suggestion to slug the idiot. I came back into the office and O immediately turned around and said he was trying to find me to explain the customer situation. That the customer had said they had talked to someone young, and since he knows both me and the other person and can see us physically, that it had to be the other woman in the office because I'm not young. So now it's gone from not sounding young to not looking young?

I told him to stop, I didn't want to know about the customer or for him to talk to me. He kept insisting on needing to explain and wanting to apologize because he "didn't say anything on purpose". I told him I accepted if it makes him go away because I don't want to discuss what the customer said or what he said. He finally went away.

As soon as he shut up my screen lit up with IM's from coworkers who let me know a couple of things. First off, I belong there and they stand by me. Secondly, O is an idiot who tried to convince them that he didn't need to apologize in the first place because he didn't say anything wrong. Two of his roommates are going to move out on him because he's apparently an inconsiderate (leaves his dirty dishes in the sink for weeks and expects someone else to clean them) and racist (everything comes back to the fact he's Muslim) slob. I don't know what they must have said to him to convince him to talk to me but apparently he *still* thinks he didn't do anything wrong.

Everyone in the room was horrified and/or was checking up on me to make sure that I was ok when I came back in. I don't think they wanted to be witness to workplace violence unless they could help too. He sort of insults a co-worker by calling her old, when she's only about 10 years older than he is, and he doesn't think he did anything wrong. How's that for being self-centered? It's a good thing I *didn't* slug him like other suggested but then *I* would be totally in the wrong. But hey, it's just words from a clueless individual...

...after all, I may be old but at least I'm not stupid.