Co-Worker as Roommate? 2

[casseopeia]

In my quest for better digs, a better landord and less rent, I've been looking to move in with a girlfriend, and possibly a third person, but 2 friends have bailed. A male co-worker suggested that I consider him as the third room mate. Lots of 3-bedroom houses available for reasonable rent here in Marin county, CA.

It seemed like the answer to my prayers, but now that the original roommate is reconsidering her situation, it's down to just me and this 23 year old CAD guy. Even though I could biologically be his mother, and no possibility for romance exists (in my mind at least), this has caused a few snickers in the office.

What seemed like a good idea is starting to look, well, not so good.

So the question is, would you live with a co-worker, same gender or no? A couple of people in the office have said never live with a person you work with, NO MATTER WHAT.

Seems like an extreme view, or am I just clouded by desperation?

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[UcfSE]

I don't pick my toenails on the table! ;-)

 

[Heckler]

casseopeia - this thread is a great end to a stressful day. Not to make light of you housing situation. I lived in the bay area (East & South) for four years so and understand the need to cut down on expenses. I got tired of nerdy engineer (male) roomates and was thinking about buying a motorhome Then I got tired of the bay area altogether and moved where I could afford a house. Best of luck





Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.

 

[wes616]

Heckler,
Reminded me of a story A good friend of mine in HS went to Santa Clara Uni, and couldn't afford housing, so he bought a motor home (cheap, barely ran), and (3) 24 hour student parking permits, and lived in the parking lot of the college for a semester.

As the price of college goes up, and my motivation to work goes down proportionally, I think this may be the way my children live, if they want to "live on campus".

Wes C.
------------------------------
When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions...

 

[casseopeia]

Heckler, you gotta make light of a situation like the housing market in the Bay area....or else you go insane.

After reading all the responses, I still have not managed to resolve why it is OK to share a house with just some random person but not a co-worker. The usual method to find a roommate in the Bay area is to post on craigslist. You end up interviewing complete strangers for compatibility. It's not unlike speed dating if you have ever done that. You get ten minutes to decide if the person in front of you is an axe murderer or not.

It got me thinking about what having another technical person around would be like. Not that many engineers or architects up here in Marin looking for a roommate situation. Funny you should say living in a motor home in a parking lot is better. I like the idea of having an engineer roommate.

My point to my friend was that I thought it better to accept a known quantity that may have a few innocuous, manageable quirks, rather than a total stranger that might be weird and creepy in ways we could not even imagine. And in defense of Habibi throwing her muffin, we were outside enjoying the sun and a couple of mimosas while trying to conger up creepy roommate scenarios, and generally being silly with a game of 'top this'.

Like I said, sometimes you just gotta laugh because how are you ever going to know if your third roomie is prancing around in your unmentionables while you are out, unless you can also blackmail him at work with the photos?


"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[UcfSE]

The problem with living with someone with whom you also work comes out when your relationship with that person goes bad due to something outside of work. Now you have to go to work and be around and interact with someone you can't stand. That causes obvious problems and stress but it's worse now because it may interfere with your livelihood.

Also note that you don't know a coworker as well as you think you do. You never know what they really do on their own time unless you're there to see it. I have a perfect example from a couple of years ago when I still worked on a masonry crew. I got a long with everyone pretty well. About a year ago or so I found out that one of them was arrested for being a child molester! Now I would never have hung with these people but I never thought this guy was like that. I didn't get any vibes like that, so to speak. You really cannot always tell. Remember that. All you know about people at work is what they are like at work.

 

[waross]

When things go bad with a stranger, you go your seperate ways. There may be some strong feelings involved, but hopefully you will never see each other again. Not so with a co-worker if things go bad.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.
respectfully

 

[BJC]

casseopeia
I noticed in the TV adds for the Bay to Breakers race they show a group in some kind of middle east or belly dancer costumes.
Are you running with bells on?
It could be a Barbra Eden fan club?

 

[DaveVikingPE]

"It could be a Barbra Eden fan club?"

I'm a member. She was great in the "7 Faces of Dr. Lao."

 

[casseopeia]

Is it Bay-to-Breakers already?!? Where does the time go?

I'm not running this year. Too bad...the Barbara Eden fan club sounds like my cup of tea.


"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[swall]

"The farting CAD guy"--sounds like a skit from Saturday Night Live. John Lovett would star, of course.

 

[Guest0527211403]

Hey wait...I'm a 24 year old CAD guy... Am I so bad???

No but seriously, cass, you are right in your decision not to move in with this dude. I am the second youngest person in my workplace (by 3 months.. the next oldest person is 32) and I couldn't picture living with anyone here. It's not that I don't get along with my co-workers, but like a few of the above posts say, it's really easy to get sick of someone, especially when the first thing you see in the morning is them walking around in their gitch.

When I was in college I lived with 2 guys I had classes with. It was my name on the lease. I had to kick them out. We don't talk anymore. Enough said.