Some office stories sound made up.
This one was not.
A new secretary arrived…
and somehow breast implants became part of the daily conversation.
It was the 1980s.
And at least in the professional world I knew…
people generally did not walk into a Real Estate office discussing their chest with strangers.
My boss was in his seventies.
One day, he decided he needed his own secretary.
Why?
I don’t know.
We were already running a tight office.
But it was his money.
Who was going to argue?
I DON’T USUALLY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY…BUT
I walked in one morning and immediately noticed something was going on.
People were smiling.
Some were laughing.
And there was this very energetic young woman greeting everybody.
“Hi! I’m Sherri. I just started today!”
Friendly.
Excited.
Full of enthusiasm.
Nothing wrong with that.
Then came the part I was not prepared for.
She was wearing an extremely low-cut top…
and before I could even decide whether I should notice that I had noticed…
she asked me directly what I thought of her recent breast augmentation.
PAUSE FOR CAUSE.
What exactly is the professional response to that at 9:00 in the morning?
LOL.
SHE WAS COMPLETELY SERIOUS
That is what made this whole thing darkly funny.
She was not flirting.
She was not trying to shock anybody.
She was genuinely delighted with the surgery.
She had wanted it for a long time.
Saved for it.
Paid for it.
And apparently felt everybody she met deserved the full progress report.
She would talk about it the way someone else might discuss:
a new car,
a haircut,
a vacation,
or the weather.
To her…
this was simply GOOD NEWS.
SHE DID THIS WITH EVERYBODY
At first, I thought maybe somebody in the office was playing a joke on me.
Nope.
Sherri did this with almost everybody she met.
Men.
Women.
Visitors.
Employees.
Anybody who happened to cross her path.
She would cheerfully mention the surgery and ask for an opinion.
It was almost like handing out a business card.
Only…
different.
VERY different.
LOL.
THE OFFICE WAS ENTERTAINED
Naturally, people noticed.
Some laughed.
Some stared.
Some tried not to stare.
Some did a very poor job of trying not to stare.
And I found myself wondering:
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
Because this was still a professional office.
Clients came in.
Phones rang.
Business was conducted.
And somewhere in the middle of all that…
Sherri was happily giving everyone an unsolicited medical-update tour.
SHERRI…CAN YOU COME IN HERE PLEASE?
Then there was my boss.
He discovered a sudden and apparently urgent need for dictation.
A LOT of dictation.
“Sherri, can you come in here please?”
“Bring your pad.”
Now…
I had worked there long enough to know how much correspondence normally went out.
Suddenly this man had apparently become the United Nations of letter writing.
LOL.
She would sit with him.
Take notes.
Read things back.
He would correct her.
She would write more.
Then read it again.
I never remember seeing much of this alleged correspondence leave the office.
But there certainly seemed to be plenty of dictation.
Make of that what you will.
I DIDN’T
LOL.
THIS WENT ON FOR WEEKS
Eventually…
something strange happened.
I got used to it.
Human beings are remarkable that way.
What shocks you on Monday can become background scenery by Friday.
Sherri would approach me and I learned to maintain eye contact and simply say:
“Sherri, what do you need?”
Get to the point.
Business.
No commentary.
No reaction.
No participation in the ongoing breast-implant seminar.
And apparently…
that bothered her.
I later realized that she interpreted my lack of enthusiasm as personal rejection.
She was proud of what she had done.
So if you did not share the excitement…
she thought perhaps you did not like HER.
That was interesting.
THE REAL LESSON WAS NOT ABOUT BREASTS
That is where this story becomes more than office humor.
Sherri had connected something physical she had changed about herself with:
acceptance,
approval,
confidence,
attention,
and perhaps even identity.
She was not merely saying:
“I had surgery.”
She seemed to be asking:
“DO YOU LIKE THE NEW ME?”
That is a much bigger question.
People do this in all sorts of ways.
New car.
New house.
New clothes.
New body.
New title.
New success.
LOOK AT THIS.
DOES THIS MAKE ME MORE ACCEPTABLE NOW?
Sometimes the object being displayed is not really the subject at all.
The person is.
BORA BORA?
A few years later, I visited Tahiti.
Topless sunbathing was common enough in some beach settings that what would have seemed startling back home quickly became ordinary there.
And I remember thinking:
Well…
apparently Sherri provided advance training.
LOL.
Context changes everything.
In one place…
something seems shocking.
In another…
nobody cares.
The human body did not change.
The CULTURE did.
IN EUROPE…SAME LESSON
I later encountered similar differences around European attitudes toward toplessness and nudity.
Things Americans might react strongly to can be treated as completely ordinary elsewhere.
That taught me something useful.
Sometimes what we call:
NORMAL
is simply:
WHAT I AM USED TO.
The two are not always the same.
PROFESSIONALISM STILL MATTERS
Now…
cultural differences are one thing.
Professional environments are another.
A workplace has expectations.
Clients have expectations.
Coworkers have boundaries.
And enthusiasm about your personal life does not automatically mean everybody else wants to participate in it.
That is where judgment enters.
You can be:
comfortable with yourself,
proud of yourself,
confident,
expressive…
and still recognize:
TIME.
PLACE.
AUDIENCE.
Those three save people a lot of trouble.
THE DREAM JOB
Then one day…
Sherri announced she was leaving.
She had found another job.
A better one.
More money.
She made the rounds saying goodbye.
My seventy-something boss looked genuinely disappointed.
Other people were amused.
Me?
Not especially surprised.
Sherri had confidence.
Plenty of it.
LOL.
And wherever she went next…
I had no doubt she would make a memorable first impression.
RICHIE SPEAKS
Here is one Richie rule:
Confidence is attractive.
Judgment keeps it professional.
Another:
Not everything you are proud of needs to become everybody else’s conversation.
And one more:
Sometimes the real question behind “What do you think?” is:
“What do you think of ME?”
PEARLS FROM THE BOOKS
From the spirit of Pearls for the Soul:
“People often display outwardly what they hope will be confirmed inwardly.”
From the spirit of God I AM:
“What we seek from others can sometimes reveal what we are still trying to settle within ourselves.”
From the spirit of It Is Finished:
“Release the need to make every room validate what you have already chosen for yourself.”
PEARLS INSIGHT
This story is funny because the social boundaries were so obviously mismatched.
But underneath the humor is a real lesson about:
identity,
validation,
professional boundaries,
culture,
and self-confidence.
People sometimes seek external confirmation for personal choices.
There is nothing inherently wrong with enjoying approval.
But when self-worth becomes dependent on constant reaction from others…
confidence becomes fragile.
Professionalism adds another layer:
being comfortable with yourself does not remove the need to read the room.
PEARLS CONNECTION
This connects directly with COMMAND YOUR PRESENCE…IT WILL WORK FOR YOU.
Presence is always communicating something.
It also connects with THE TONE OF YOUR VOICE SPEAKS TOO.
Communication is not only words.
Dress, body language, boundaries, and context all speak.
And I SEE SOMETHING ABOUT YOU THAT YOU DON’T SEE reminds us that other people sometimes experience us very differently from how we experience ourselves.
FINAL SAY
Life is strange.
People are strange.
Offices are REALLY strange.
LOL.
Sherri taught me something without ever intending to.
Be proud of yourself.
Fine.
Enjoy your choices.
Fine.
But know:
WHERE YOU ARE,
WHO YOU ARE WITH,
and WHAT THE MOMENT CALLS FOR.
Confidence without awareness can become spectacle.
Awareness without confidence can become hiding.
The sweet spot is knowing who you are…
without requiring the entire room to confirm it.
And yes…
all these years later…
I still remember Sherri.
Which probably proves she commanded her presence…
whether any of us were ready for it or not.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
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