Office friendships - or "who gives a fuck?"

[iaidoka]

My wife is very concerned, becuase of all sorts of office polatics that seem far too surreal for a guy like me, who just keeps his head down, does his work, and mutters "soon Morrowind time. soon Morrowind time"

She used to be friends with girl A. then girl B came along. both girl A and B are backpackers.. so wifey suddenly felt like a Uneeded C..

Yesterday girl A wasnt around.. so girl B was real friendly to Wifey...

Today Girl A returns.. girl B doesnt speak to Wife much..

this is apparently a really terrible situation

I dunno what the big freaking deal is.. WE ARE FREAKING TEMPS! 3 weeks time and its "have a nice life, and btw damn Ben you SMELL"

I dunno. Most people are boring anyway. Dancing Banana is my one true Office friend. :banana:

[Buffy]

Heh, office politics sucks so badly.
I was in the same situation at a previous job, two girls, either one would talk to me and the other wouldn't, or vice verca... it didn't affect me that much, i preferred eating with the hippies down the road than listen to another hour lunch break of 'my husband sucks' monologue.
When it started affecting my work however , then i got annoyed. If not talking to someone means not passing along messages etc then I believe thats pretty poor professionalism. I complained. I got a response... "oh you girls sort out your little squabbles amoungst yourself"
hmmm
ok
*writes resignation letter*
If it really matters to you that much, or its affecting your work, say something, if that doesn't get you anywhere, you need a new job...
personally I wouldn't care about 2 stuck up bitches that have nothing better to do than play boring games.

[Fuzzy Dice]

'doka..

the bottom line is that chicks worry about a lot of things that are completely unimportant. And that women do the politics thing from the age of 6.

[oracle]

Fuzzy Dice is right... Case in point: Gossip!

No self-respecting guy gives a shit who's doing who, or what the latest rumour is. Women, on the other hand...

[Chocoholic]

I was reading somewhere that men are more successful because they don’t take things as personally as women. I think it has some merit but isn’t true in every case. A department in my company hires young school leavers and the girls tend not to stick it out. My opinion is that they are not treated with “kid gloves” and take things to personally. When they fuck up they are told just like every one else in that position including graduates.

I have worked in close proximity with a person I didn’t really like. We had absolutely nothing in common and they had no work ethics what so ever which apparently was been noted by the powers that be yet nothing happened. People would come in to our office and comment that it is a very hostile environment. I tried a few different tactics to deal with this.
Ignore Her: Seem to affect me more than her as there was no one to vent to and my friends and family soon got over hearing about it.
Making life difficult: I wasn’t the major instigator in this. Some people around the office would go out of their way to make her life difficult but she didn’t quit so I guess it didn’t work, made me smile inside a little.
Talk to her: I made a conscious effort to talk to her, sure we aren’t “friends” but at least I don’t walk out of the office at the end of the day with out wanting to trash her shit.

As wifey if only temping I would tell her to get her hormones in check and get over it. (perhaps you should phase that a little better)


Originally posted by oracle

No self-respecting guy gives a shit who's doing who, or what the latest rumour is. Women, on the other hand...

I have found this not always to be the case. Some men love office rumors. Mainly because that is how you find out what is going on in the office. I would use Zgeek as an example just because I can. I am sure there are many gossiping males about. They just go about it a little differently than women.

[spankthejester]

Men will listen to rumors, but we don't pass them on as often. We'll laugh or smirk, but normally don't give much of a damn about what's happening around us...Atleast that's what I've noticed...

[Al]

Originally posted by Buffy
I complained. I got a response... "oh you girls sort out your little squabbles amoungst yourself"
hmmm
ok
*writes resignation letter*

I'd clock someone if they said that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think men that treat women as deficient in some way need to be educated or something.

iaidoka, when people get in situations like this there's not much you can do. Sounds like your wife might be taking it too personally tho.

All you can do is say the right thing and wait for her to find another temping job.

[Conny!]

I've worked a couple of office jobs and know that office politics blows. But for some people work is their entire lives so trading of office gossip can sometimes be there only social outlet. When i've only had temp jobs i found the best thing to do was be polite to everyone and not really give a woory about the people you don't directly work with. I never had many problems, and if i did i'm outspoken enough to tell them to pull their head in.
But if it starts affecting the way you work then that is really bad. I used to hate people emailing me from across the room saying something like "has the mail arrived". That is crap.
But after leaving school and working as a low level government employee for a year i realised i don't want to do that forever. So i went off to uni, and now that same government pays my way through uni. :D

[MisterBishi]

Originally posted by big al
I'd clock someone if they said that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think men that treat women as deficient in some way need to be educated or something.


I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think that people who automatically decide that a man is to blame for anything wrong that's happening in the world need to be educated in equality.

[nosedog]

Originally posted by MisterBishi
I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think that people who automatically decide that a man is to blame for anything wrong that's happening in the world need to be educated in equality.

I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think that people who automatically decide to threaten a man with violence for something he did wrong need to be educated about non-violent conflict resolution.

[MisterBishi]

Originally posted by nosedog
I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think that people who automatically decide to threaten a man with violence for something he did wrong need to be educated about non-violent conflict resolution.

I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think people who automatically decide that violence is a bad thing need to be educated about the people who did violent things 50 years ago so that you could be free to denounce them today.

[Al]

Originally posted by MisterBishi
I should clock you for saying that. Shit like that really pisses me off. I think that people who automatically decide that a man is to blame for anything wrong that's happening in the world need to be educated in equality.

Ok my point (possibly badly explained) was that people that make generalisations based on gender give me the shits.

I wasn't saying that men were to blame...

[RASPUTIN]

I've always worked in the large corporate sector and I find it critical to go out of your way to know the right people.

My rule number 1 is to never get too personal eg never let anyone know something about you that could be used against you. But in saying that I like going out with everyone every couple of weeks for a few after work drinkies on a Friday.

I had this dog bitch mole cause me a lot of trouble recently. Funny thing is because I am well liked it completely backfired on her. Hehehe gotta love knowing her manager better than she does.

[robotoverflow]

Originally posted by big al
whatever
You broke the clocking.

[utopian]

You should clock him for that.

[Nandragon]

It doesn't matter WTF you work. There will always be

1. A dick
2. A bitch
3. A gossip
4. Lack of corporate communitcations.
5. A slackard

In some situations even the "Stinky guy"

You could work for my boss.





nanenough@hwy1.com

[rascuache]

the best way is to just ignore it
god i dont think i'd dream of tryign to be friends with any of my co workers outside work, as far as i'm concerned we're there to get the job done, and if we can do it with a laugh and a joke here and there why not.

geez, tell wifey to get a life, you only work there ffs

[Conny!]

Originally posted by rascuache
the best way is to just ignore it
god i dont think i'd dream of tryign to be friends with any of my co workers outside work, as far as i'm concerned we're there to get the job done, and if we can do it with a laugh and a joke here and there why not.

geez, tell wifey to get a life, you only work there ffs

Thats probably not the best attitude. You can make good freinds with colleagues. If you work in the same proffession you may share common interests. The old addage of don't mix business with pleasure is so wrong.

My parents met each other because they were both teachers at the same school. :banana:

edit:gramma

[rascuache]

Okay, little background information

i work at telstra,
its not my dream job, it just pays the bills
if i put my heart and soul into the job maybe but, no one else there does except for the upper upper management, who have all been working there closely for years.

Me, i'm shitloads younger than everyone else, i'm alot smarter than most of them and the most common question i get is, god you're intelligent....why are you working here? Today i actually got told by a guy who has been there 10 years that he hoped someone with as bright as prospects as i have did not spend anymore time than they needed to working in that environment and not use it as a stepping stone into a far more rewarding career to where i actually wanted to go.

I've gotten closer friends from uni, they actually do share my interests and dont look at me blankly when i talk about something i'm passionate about, like music or computers