Dominic George: Men need their own space to thrive

Dominic George reflects on relationships. "Women - you can't live with 'em ... The End."

As far as memorable quotes go, Al Bundy's "Women - you can't live with 'em ... The End", is about as memorable and succinct as you can get. It's up there with "don't mention the war" and "I was in the pool!" But Bundy's takes the cake in my humble opinion.

I share an office with a female colleague, new Farming Show online editor Hanoi Jane, and such is the bickering that emanates from our little work space she's been dubbed my "work wife". So I now have two wives; a real wife and a work wife.

You may think my mini-harem sounds like fun, but let me tell you it's anything but. All it means is I have more to do, more to worry about and more to listen to. My poor eardrums take a hammering from dawn til dusk.

A good case in point was on Monday when she failed to make my lunch, as is the custom when Jamie Mackay is away, which he was. My befuddlement was met with a curt remark about posting a sexist video on the Farming Show's Facebook page. Yes, the video I posted may have starred scantily clad hotties lathered in oil, but they were being very helpful in trying to explain the plentiful and challenging rules of rugby ahead of the test on Saturday night. Sometimes women just need to let men get on with things.

Just ask Stan Wawrinka, the Swiss winner of the French Open back in June. He recently split with his wife, which was unceremoniously announced on the official Roland Garros website by an over-zealous scribe. Stan quite rightly wasn't happy with this, but was still able to do what many thought impossible; beat a rampant Novak Djokovic on his quest to secure the one major title that (still) eludes him.

It has shades of Rory McIlroy giving the flick to Caroline Wozniacki just over a year ago. He brutally texted her to say the whole deal was off, just moments after the couple sent out their wedding invites!

Within days he claimed his maiden victory on European soil and proceeded to win seven championships, including two majors and the No1 world ranking, over the course of the next year.

I once had the pleasure of hearing a talk from the late Celia Lashlie about raising boys and how to give them the best chance to develop into reasonable men. Her most important piece of advice was to give them some goddam space! I'm sure she also said to make them lunch, but I can't be certain. She most definitely would have discouraged the sort of pettiness displayed by the Farming Show team's latest addition and would have probably found the rugby rules video quite helpful as well.

Not only was I being a selfless team player by posting this video, I was also trying to boost the numbers and insufferable KPIs (I've recently discovered that stands for Key Performance Indicators, in other words corporate talk for doing your job) that are almost certainly arbitrarily designated to lackeys the world over, thereby enabling a seamless transition for the new employee into the world of digital media. Did it work? Did it what!

The post received more "likes" and comments than Jamie Mackay's interview with Fonterra chairman John Wilson posted on Black Friday. Now that surely deserves a free lunch ... The End.