C’est un vrai connard, or giving the French a bad name
The French have a, sometimes undeserving, reputation as variously aloof, curt, rude and narcissistic, however my partner’s boss gives not only foundation to any ill-will one might want to feel, but a whole new level of dimension of, well, inhuman behavior. For a party, I had baked chocolate-chip cookies and some amazing brownies. Now, not to toot my own horn—OK, just a little—but these are killer things. Yes, they’re sweet, but I make them in smaller sizes because of this. We’re not talking Cheesecake Factory excess, but a 1” square brownie of pure chocolate indulgence. His boss’ reaction, relayed through chat?
Connard came in, tossed the brownie/cookie to the side of his desk and, with a very big sigh, said: We French don’t indulge in constant fattening like you Americans so please don’t bring me more of your sweet food.
Really? You’re kidding me, right? Not even a “thank you, but I don’t eat sweets/like chocolate/etc”? Basically, it was “f-you, you fat American pig”, which is ironic since the partner isn’t the least bit overweight. I had previously written off Connard’s inconsiderate and self-obsessed linguistic misteps as simply an unfamiliarity with the English language, such as “well, I let you go to the doctor last week”, but this to me illuminates a gaping hole of persona where politeness, decency and one might even say simple humanity would normally be placed. Instead, it’s replaced by a gigantic serving of douche.
This entry was posted at 10:28 am on 14 January 2009 and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the post-specific RSS 2.0 feed.
The evening kicker is that the bastid ate them anyway and looked over at me with an “Mmmmmmm” and two thumbs motioning upwards along with a winky wink indicating that he approved. He’s a nut job to say the least. Bastid.
I’d send in more cookies with a note:
“We Americans don’t engage in effortless surrender so eat the fucking cookie or else. Douche. And I don’t mean “shower”. But you might want to think about it. Showering, that is.”
whoa. That got long-winded. sorry.
I have always thought that you don’t make any level above manager in a consultancy without being at least mildly disturbed. I am not sure what that says about me at this point. ;-)
send the next batch our way. we’ll find them a good, appreciative home
Aww. Now, if the rest of the world had thoughtful manners like you, we’d be in a better place.
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I like that the last word is also French.