Real estate is my second career...my first was law enforcement (17 years), so needless to say I thought I'd seen and heard it all.  Until I got into real estate that is. 

As a police officer, I pretty much kept to myself, did my job and went home.  I didn't share much of my job with my family as I didn't see the need to give them an idea of just how disjointed some of society really is.  I didn't hang around other cops, I didn't go drinking with them and I sure didn't share my personal thoughts and matters with them.  I simply kept to myself.

So you might imagine my surprise when I left law enforcement and joined a national real estate company and found that other agents thought they had a right to know my most personal details.  This was foreign to me.  But to my disgust, I would have agents I just met ask me "how much have you netted this year."  It was like the IRS was getting ready to go in for the kill.  Once I realized this was a cultural thing for agents, I put my foot down and made sure folks knew not to dig into my personal life.

The last time it happened in the large office I was working form, a female agent, who was a known busybody and who had had a very good year and let everyone know it, put her hands on her hips and said, "so what you have made this year?"  She must have caught me at a bad moment because she no sooner spewed her question before I responded loud enough for other agents nearby to hear, "What size bra do you wear?"  She became very red and said "WHAT?"  That's when I told her that we have apparently become very close friends who are willing to share our most intimate life details and I thought is was only fair that she share hers with me too.  She was mad as a hornet and left the building to have a smoke and calm down while the other agents had a good laugh at her expense. 

But I never could understand how or why someone thought they could ask me how much money I make, who I voted for or whether my sex life at home was sufficient.  After all, I truly can not remember asking my doctor any of these questions and it wouldn't have ever crossed my mind to do so.  Let's hope the newer agents arriving on scene now days have better ethical standards than many of their peers did.

What are you thoughts?