>>105769158They didn't really treat her as a freak, just not one of them, yet.
And honestly, if it's your first day in a new entry level job, you're supposed to sort of sniff around for the feeling in the air and try to adjust to the corporate culture, instead of immediately bringing in a shitload of stuff (including a bag of knitting supplies right on your desk, wtf who puts non-work-related hobby stuff up on display like that), trying to tell shit jokes that others around you can't understand because they're not in the same hobby and don't even know the terminology and so forth. She was socially super inept and didn't really try to "fit in".
I'm also a bit peeved women are shown as craftsy chattery overly cheerful yarnheads as a rule, like that's not Purl's personality, that's just a general "yarn ball" = woman thing according to the short. I hate generalizations like that, like tee hee us girls are all just soooo much more emphatetic, cat posters and knitting and bright colors and chattering amirite, asking us to act even a little professional is asking us to completely smother "our true selves" and become men! Pisses me off.
I get the point the short tried to make, but I just didn't feel sympathy for Purl at all.
