[Rick TYler]

I had a private message on this from a mentor who reminded me of something that we should all heed:

1. Treat each other with respect. This includes understanding that "no" means "no."

2. Having a crush on someone is a normal part of adolescent (and, dare I say, adult life). Taking "no" for an answer is the correct, mature response.

3. The rules are different in a professional environment than in life outside work. Trust me on this. Nothing will brand you as a loser faster than "hitting on" people at work.

4. If your mother wouldn't approve of your behavior, you shouldn't do it.

Thank you to the mentor who suggested that my comment might be misunderstood. I was trying to say that just because someone says, "Do you want to come over to our pit and see my engineering drawings?," doesn't necessarily mean that you are being stalked.

Amusing observation: I once worked for a 30-person software company that only had a couple of single, unattached women working there. Both of them usually had several visits a day from confused asocial programmers who didn't even seem to know why they were walking out of their way to say hi. As an old married guy, I thought it was kind of cute. (No, none of them ever did anything weird. They just seemed to understand in a sort of confused programmer way that girls and boys are different.) (Note: this anecdote is a humorous overstatement. Some of my best friends are software engineers who are every bit as socially sophisticated as the average 14-year-old boy.)