\t\t\t\tAs the scene opens, Janice, the supervisor, is sitting alone at her desk. Her employee, Cynthia, approaches her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Cynthia is quite agitated as she explains to Janice, \u201cI really need to talk to you about something. I have to ask you,\u201d she says in a pleading tone, \u201cplease don\u2019t tell anyone in the office. My husband just left me, and it was a surprise. I can barely deal with it. I\u2019m barely functioning here,\u201d she says, choking back tears. \u201cOn top of that,\u201d she goes on, with her shoulders and head slowly drooping forward, \u201cI just got back from the doctor and I have to have a hysterectomy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cOh my goodness,\u201d exclaims Janice with a look of concern on her face as she reaches over to pat Cynthia on the arm. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry to hear this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Cynthia goes on to explain about her need for privacy. \u201cI really need to keep this quiet.\u201d She looks Janice in the eyes pleadingly. \u201cI don\u2019t want people coming up to me. I can\u2019t deal with it emotionally right now. It\u2019s just too much. Is that all right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand completely,\u201d Janice says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
We next see Janice as she enters the lunchroom with a worried frown creasing her forehead. She is trying to maintain her resolve to keep quiet as she approaches two women waiting for her at a table for lunch. \u201cUhh!\u201d is the sound of her resolve escaping as she loses the battle. \u201cI just had a\u2014you can\u2019t say anything!\u201d The two women agree. \u201cCynthia\u2019s having a hard time, and I just want to, you know\u2014this has to be confidential. But we really need to support her and to help her. She\u2019s having problems in her marriage, and female problems, too. I can\u2019t go into the details. I trust you two to keep this under wraps. I\u2019m just saying something because we just really want to support her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The two women agree, \u201cYes, of course!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
After a quick lunch, Janice gets up to leave. After she leaves, one of her lunch partners, Andrea, gets up and goes over to another table with two women having lunch and sits down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Practically whispering, she asks, \u201cDid you hear about Cynthia?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo, what?\u201d they say, leaning in with curiosity, glad to be sharing what is apparently a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cYeah, she\u2019s got some female problems and some marital issues. You have to keep it quiet, though. Don\u2019t tell anybody where you heard this from. All right? You know, we just want to be there for her and make sure to support her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
The two women mumble their agreement, and they all get up and go their separate ways. One of them, Sandra, sees Cynthia in the hall and goes over to her. \u201cOh my gosh, Cynthia, I just heard,\u201d says Sandra, as all the color drains from Cynthia\u2019s face and her mouth sags open in surprise. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry about everything that\u2019s going on! I\u2019ve had two miscarriages myself, so I know what it\u2019s like. And, you know, my husband and I were separated for a time.\u201d Cynthia is mortified as it hits her that everyone knows, and she hides her face in her hands. \u201cWe were able, through counseling, to work it out, though, so don\u2019t give up,\u201d says Sandra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cGotta run!\u201d She hurries off, noticing that her supportive comments have not been well received and feeling a little bit hurt about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Cynthia groans. The role-play ends.<\/p>\n\n\nAs I watched the role-play, I thought, \u201cYuck! Another role-play about gossip!\u201d But when I asked the group to discuss what they had seen, an argument broke out about whether or not this role-play was about gossip. I was baffled. I could not understand what the argument was about, but the group quickly changed the subject and went on to discuss the other three role-plays that had been performed. I left the session still confused about that argument.\nAn excerpt from my book,\u00a0New Rules for Women<\/em>, available at Amazon (http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0982056982\/<\/a>).]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[169,207,222,418,612,634],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-excerpt","tag-emotions","tag-feminine-values","tag-friendship-rules","tag-new-rules","tag-women","tag-workplace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}