Disclaimer: There is no actual tickling in this story, but it's a true story where tickling did come up in conversation, so I'm posting it here in case anyone is interested. I originally wrote this as part of a quick reply to a fun forum thread, but decided to format it better and bring more clarity to some parts.
Several years ago I worked in an administrative office setting with fairly strict policies due to the serious nature of the work. The workplace culture was generally very reserved and professional. The vast majority of my coworkers were middle-aged women, who occasionally took joy in teasing me, their young male colleague. The teasing had never really been very risque or anything, but did usually involve humor around me being very outnumbered among all the women at the office. It was all in good fun and I enjoyed the playful banter from time to time.
My workload was heavy and I kept to myself most of the time, in part because I probably had less in common with most of my coworkers, but also just to stay afloat with all that had to be done. I became known as a shy, quiet guy who took work very seriously, and for the most part, I'd say that was fairly accurate in that environment. Most of the meetings I was involved in were dealing with other departments or broader organization meetings where many more extended coworkers were present (those outside of the admin offices). Meetings for just the admin staff themselves were less frequent to favor efficiency. Occasionally we would have a somewhat relaxed meeting with select admin staff to go over broad status reports and all manner of boring things. In those meetings, there were typically about 8 - 15 members present, me being the only male.
For one of those admin meetings, I got there a little early, so I was one of the first to arrive in the small conference room. I had a bad headache that day and was feeling even less social than normal. I mostly just acted like I was busy to avoid small talk while a few people came in and sat down. I immediately noticed that one of the women attending the meeting, I'll call her B, was an admin staff member who I had only very rare interactions with because she was usually doing evaluations off-site. She was a very confident, fit woman in her mid-50s who was always very talkative with everyone, so naturally I often avoided her lol.
B sat down in the chair next to me, though our two chairs were still spaced pretty far apart.
"Hi," she said, greeting me enthusiastically.
"Hi," I responded, trying to pretend to go back to thinking about something important without appearing rude.
There were maybe five people in the room at the time, mostly just staying quiet and waiting patiently for the meeting to start.
We sat there for just a bit longer before she spoke to me again. "You're quiet," she said.
Nothing I hadn't heard before, I thought.
Before I got out a clever response, B asked the rest of the group, "Isn't he quiet?"
Now hold on, I thought to myself, everyone else is being pretty quiet, too. A few of the others were now either smiling or chuckling.
At that moment, B looked right at me, but spoke to everyone else, and said–and I shit you not–"I bet he's ticklish!"
I didn't move at all. My body seized up and I turned to stone. The intensity in which she said those words still haunts me to this day. I felt my blood temperature rise a few degrees and my throat was so tight that I felt like it would burst–there was no way I could speak. Sure I couldn't move, but my soul left my body and fell onto the floor. Even if I weren't paralyzed, there was no time to react before B prompted the group again.
"Do you guys think he's ticklish?" She asked mischievously.
"Hmm, maybe…," one of them said in an unsettlingly curious tone.
"Yeah, I think so," another replied in a way that sounded like she was weighing the idea in her mind.
B then affirmed that by saying, "Yes, I think he is ticklish. I bet if I tickled him on his ribs, he wouldn't be so quiet!" She made direct eye contact with me. "Are you ticklish?"
Everything was going dark. Was I going to pass out? Was this the cold hand of death around my throat? Oh my god...was she going to tickle me? More people moved in and closed the door. The meeting was starting. It's all fuzzy after that, but basically she got distracted right after that by the other staff coming in to start the meeting. I want to say I at least smiled at her and nervously laughed it off as I was having my out of body experience, but I honestly don't know. What a wild thing to randomly come up in such an unexpected place. It never came up again with anyone in my workplace, to include with B.
I was sweating as I wrote this. I don't think I have ever felt so intimidated. Indeed, I usually don't have a problem feeling intimidated by others at all. Not in some way where I feel I'm something so great or impressive that I have no competition or anything like that. I just usually feel comfortably confident and at ease by focusing on myself, even when others feel the need to flex. But in this case, I was caught so very off guard. It was as though she stared right into my soul and immediately identified my greatest weaknesses and insecurities. I'll never forget it.
Several years ago I worked in an administrative office setting with fairly strict policies due to the serious nature of the work. The workplace culture was generally very reserved and professional. The vast majority of my coworkers were middle-aged women, who occasionally took joy in teasing me, their young male colleague. The teasing had never really been very risque or anything, but did usually involve humor around me being very outnumbered among all the women at the office. It was all in good fun and I enjoyed the playful banter from time to time.
My workload was heavy and I kept to myself most of the time, in part because I probably had less in common with most of my coworkers, but also just to stay afloat with all that had to be done. I became known as a shy, quiet guy who took work very seriously, and for the most part, I'd say that was fairly accurate in that environment. Most of the meetings I was involved in were dealing with other departments or broader organization meetings where many more extended coworkers were present (those outside of the admin offices). Meetings for just the admin staff themselves were less frequent to favor efficiency. Occasionally we would have a somewhat relaxed meeting with select admin staff to go over broad status reports and all manner of boring things. In those meetings, there were typically about 8 - 15 members present, me being the only male.
For one of those admin meetings, I got there a little early, so I was one of the first to arrive in the small conference room. I had a bad headache that day and was feeling even less social than normal. I mostly just acted like I was busy to avoid small talk while a few people came in and sat down. I immediately noticed that one of the women attending the meeting, I'll call her B, was an admin staff member who I had only very rare interactions with because she was usually doing evaluations off-site. She was a very confident, fit woman in her mid-50s who was always very talkative with everyone, so naturally I often avoided her lol.
B sat down in the chair next to me, though our two chairs were still spaced pretty far apart.
"Hi," she said, greeting me enthusiastically.
"Hi," I responded, trying to pretend to go back to thinking about something important without appearing rude.
There were maybe five people in the room at the time, mostly just staying quiet and waiting patiently for the meeting to start.
We sat there for just a bit longer before she spoke to me again. "You're quiet," she said.
Nothing I hadn't heard before, I thought.
Before I got out a clever response, B asked the rest of the group, "Isn't he quiet?"
Now hold on, I thought to myself, everyone else is being pretty quiet, too. A few of the others were now either smiling or chuckling.
At that moment, B looked right at me, but spoke to everyone else, and said–and I shit you not–"I bet he's ticklish!"
I didn't move at all. My body seized up and I turned to stone. The intensity in which she said those words still haunts me to this day. I felt my blood temperature rise a few degrees and my throat was so tight that I felt like it would burst–there was no way I could speak. Sure I couldn't move, but my soul left my body and fell onto the floor. Even if I weren't paralyzed, there was no time to react before B prompted the group again.
"Do you guys think he's ticklish?" She asked mischievously.
"Hmm, maybe…," one of them said in an unsettlingly curious tone.
"Yeah, I think so," another replied in a way that sounded like she was weighing the idea in her mind.
B then affirmed that by saying, "Yes, I think he is ticklish. I bet if I tickled him on his ribs, he wouldn't be so quiet!" She made direct eye contact with me. "Are you ticklish?"
Everything was going dark. Was I going to pass out? Was this the cold hand of death around my throat? Oh my god...was she going to tickle me? More people moved in and closed the door. The meeting was starting. It's all fuzzy after that, but basically she got distracted right after that by the other staff coming in to start the meeting. I want to say I at least smiled at her and nervously laughed it off as I was having my out of body experience, but I honestly don't know. What a wild thing to randomly come up in such an unexpected place. It never came up again with anyone in my workplace, to include with B.
I was sweating as I wrote this. I don't think I have ever felt so intimidated. Indeed, I usually don't have a problem feeling intimidated by others at all. Not in some way where I feel I'm something so great or impressive that I have no competition or anything like that. I just usually feel comfortably confident and at ease by focusing on myself, even when others feel the need to flex. But in this case, I was caught so very off guard. It was as though she stared right into my soul and immediately identified my greatest weaknesses and insecurities. I'll never forget it.
