By Julia Feldmeier
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, March 23, 2008; N02

Ah, the office. It's like a fishbowl, isn't it? The water-cooler gossip. Phone conversations heard over the cubicle wall. Corporate retreats. All help us see who our co-workers really are.

But seeing them at the office gym? Maybe a little too real.

Sure, a fitness center seems like a great perk for employees. Hooray for that 20-minute lunchtime power session on the elliptical! Work gyms are convenient and cheap, if not free. Of course, they're also inherently awkward.

"It's a little more stressful sweating profusely around people that you are in a professional atmosphere with," says Justin Lucas, 25, a D.C. resident who works for a human resources consulting firm. "Or vice versa: seeing somebody really, really talented sweat all over the place."

Like most office gyms, the one in Lucas's building is small: two treadmills, four ellipticals, a few weightlifting machines, a dumbbell rack and an abdominal bench. Of the two small televisions, one works.

Close proximity makes interaction unavoidable, but Lucas says that he and his boss, who also uses the gym, keep their fitness exchanges brief.

"I already saw you for eight hours today," Lucas says. "That's my professional life. Now I'm just going to work out and be myself."

Those who exercise at work say that they and their co-workers for the most part are respectful of this boundary. They recognize that lifting weights is about building muscle, not business. But even if you're not talking shop, your colleagues see you -- and they may be judging.

At her former job at AARP, Jen Slawson, 28, used the office gym when she was too pressed for time to get to Bally's, where she paid for a membership. While the level of exercise among Bally's patrons was intense, Slawson says, at work it was lower.

For Slawson, who was younger than most of her gymgoing colleagues and liked to work out more vigorously, the disparity made her feel conspicuous.

"It's like performance evaluation on the treadmill," she says, a feeling that unleashed a slew of concerns that she never considered when exercising at Bally's: "How's my form? Am I sweating too much? Do I smell?"

Some self-awareness is necessary at an office facility, where adherence to basic gym etiquette isn't just courteous, it's imperative.

"The same rules apply in the office gym, and the consequences could be even worse if you act like a boor in the office gym because it could seep into office politics," says Caroline Tiger, author of "How to Behave: A Guide to Modern Manners for the Socially Challenged" (Quirk Books, 2003).

A few fundamental guidelines:

• Don't leave a machine covered in sweat. Use a towel to wipe it down.
• Bring a fresh change of workout gear. No one wants to see you (or smell you) in the same stinky outfit.
• Don't hog a machine if others are waiting to use it. Stick to a 30-minute time limit.

Sound obvious? Not always, evidently. At his previous job with a Georgetown law firm, Matt Melnicoff, 26, used the gym in the basement of the office building -- seemingly convenient, but for the fact that the treadmills were often occupied.

And they were always used by the same women who would walk slowly for an hour. "There was no time limit, so they would just . . . walk on those machines forever," he says. "And they always watched this same horrible judge show on television."

Melnicoff eventually switched his workout schedule to avoid treadmill confrontation. Ultimately, he and other frustrated co-workers went to the building manager and requested that he put up a sign about limiting machine use.

But not all gym issues can be resolved by management. Some, unfortunately, are left to individual discretion. Like, say, choice of attire.

"Wear your biggest, baggiest workout gear to the office gym," Tiger says. "It would be awkward to see your co-workers if they're the kind of people who just wear spandex to the gym. Especially on guys, that can be a really scary sight."

Um, yeah.

There's also a blurry line regarding where workout attire is appropriate. Brennan Hogan's old office had a gym in the basement that she sometimes used; at other times she'd run outside after work.

"Occasionally I'd forget my water bottle at my desk, so I'd run in and get it," says Hogan, 25. "I worked mostly with guys, so running to my desk in shorts and a T-shirt was always kind of awkward. I'd be like, 'Hi, ignore me!' "

If it was after working hours, she sometimes would return to her desk to finish a few tasks before heading home.

"I didn't really want to shower and put work clothes back on," she says. Besides, she figured it was after-hours -- who'd be around to see what she was wearing? Alas.

"My manager just happened to be on my floor and was like, 'Hey, Brennan' -- and there I was, sitting at my desk, working in a sweaty T-shirt and sweatpants."

Luckily, she says, her manager cast no judgments. But if your boss isn't so easygoing? It's worth remembering where you are -- and who's around you.

That wisdom holds true for the locker room, too, where some of the most uncomfortable encounters can take place. To mitigate the awkwardness at AARP, Slawson says, she changed quickly and discreetly.

But, she says, "I definitely saw some co-workers walking around the locker room naked. How do you face that person? There's some strangeness around that."