My place of employment is huge, but I work with a small team of 8 (all women.) We are pretty close, but I had only told 2 people (that I was closer to friend-wise) about the snakes. Well, last week I let it all out of the bag about owning them. Here's how it happened.
Two of the girls were talking about "good vs. evil" type stuff. They were mentioning about "do animals go to heaven when they die?" One of them said "oh yes, our dogs will go there, I know it, but what about nasty animals like snakes?" It riled me up a bit, but instead of getting mad (like I wanted to, lol) I went over and explained that I keep snakes as pets. After some weird expressions like I would make if I saw someone decapitated, they actually apologised about talking so badly about snakes; their fears and such are completely religious, and fear, influenced. My one coworker said that her older brothers would torment her by putting little garter snakes in her bed.. I guess that this could create a lifelong phobia.
But I feel better now that I am not hiding this. And it turns out, one of my coworkers loves snakes and used to work at a zoo, and wants to see them. And my supervisor has a bearded dragon.