Opinionated workplaces

My workplace is full of academics, which means that everyone has an opinion about everything—and expresses it very loudly. Whether they have any knowledge of, or experience about, the subject on which they are holding forth is, apparently, irrelevant.

At times this can be amusing. At other times, irritating.

These are some of the things that have been discussed with alacrity over recent weeks:

• common childhood diseases and their inoculations (none of the discussants has children)
• what foods should and shouldn't be eaten by pregnant women (none of the discussants is female and none of the discussants has a partner who either is or has been pregnant)
• the salary grade held by non-academic group members (none of the discussants is party to this information)
• where the remaining Boston marathon bomber was hiding out and the brothers’ motives for the bombing (who knew?).

Quite a range of things on which to have an uninformed opinion, I’d say...