Since when has yawning become such a terrible thing?
I am discovering that the anti-yawning sentiment at my office is incredibly strong, which has both social and physical ramifications. I can understand that a misplaced or overly-pronounced yawn can be perceived of as rude; yet even a quiet, discrete, unnoticeable yawn during a conference call here leads to a violent onslaught of chastisement (via wild gesticulations and nonverbal shaming cues). It seems to be an in-office form of entertainment. Just yesterday, when I arrived at work in the morning, I found a large paper with a picture of a lion, yawning, overlayed with a red circle with a line through it and "NO YAWNING" printed at the bottom in red. It is now on my bulletin board, serving as a reminder. Also suggested by a coworker was a "sequential yawning routine" at our next staff meeting.
Sometimes my brain just needs more oxygen!
The uncanny part to this trend is its extension outside the office. This past weekend I found myself waiting in Grand Central, leaning against the wall near the audio tour guide station. After a long night and an equally long morning, I was exhausted. As I stared at the ceiling, I let out an unrestrained (which, for me, is an uncovered but silent) yawn. The woman standing next to me, who was setting up her audio device, turns to me abruptly and says, "Don't you know that you aren't allowed to yawn here?" For a moment I thought that, in a haze, I had misconstrued my boss for a middle-aged woman. My mouth was left hanging open after realizing that, indeed, I had not.
In other exhaustion-related news, yesterday was the first day that I actually felt stressed at work. Somehow as the day progressed, fatigue mingled with miscommunications and an inundation of email back-and-forths, all of which left me feeling slightly frustrated. Thankfully I have the beach--and a kitty--to restore post-work sanity.