An important question asked in a number of office surveys is whether ‘you’ have a ‘best friend at work’
No matter how much you might enjoy your job, nothing is ever 100% rosy 100% of the time and having someone at work you can confide in / vent to / bounce ideas off / bitch with is a vital part of our working lives. We spend so much of our adult lives there it would be a pretty miserable experience if you found yourself having to edit your conversation all day, every day.
It’s possibly one of the scariest parts of changing jobs – “Will I fit in?” … “Will I be accepted?”
When you have worked with, and presumably formed a bond with a group of people, the prospect of leaving that group and entering into a strange environment where you have to start all over again is more daunting (to me anyway) than the idea of possibly having to learn a whole new set of skills to be successful in a new job.
I’ve had a few changes of job over the years and I have been lucky enough to form a close bond with a fellow workmate in each case – I tend to build relationships with people at work pretty easily but I am very cautious, and selective, about who I allow close enough to be considered a ‘best buddy’ in the workplace. Usually it’s only ever one person – and that person is usually female and older ….. Not sure what that’s about?? Maybe a granny complex???
I can think of 3 women immediately who would club me to death on the spot if they ever happened to read this!!! :-)
Anyway … what’s the point of all this tripe?
Well, the place I work now is possibly as close as I could describe to being a dream job for me. Sure it has its issues – every workplace does – the systems work against us most of the time, the expectations are generally way too high, too much ‘secret squirrel’ business going on (secret squirrel = underhanded hidden agendas) but for me I see a job that at last offers security, advancement and acknowledgement of effort – all of which added to the fact that this particular job come up just when I needed it most means that over all I am pretty damn happy with where I am.
It was in this job also that I located a ‘best buddy’ in record breaking time. I tend to be very politically incorrect most of the time and I usually keep a low profile for a few months while I suss out the right victims to unleash my particular brand of humour on. As it turned out, this particular person is basically on the same wavelength and possibly because we were thrown together to clean up the same mess helped form a bond a lot faster than normal – and she’s not even older so the granny complex idea is out the window now.
Being similar in a number of ways helps too – same sense of humour, same political views – we both despise the garden gnome and the war monger (that’s similar enough for me) … but clearly there are big differences too – if nothing else, she has a vagina and I don’t …. Although I have been called a variation of the word on more than a few occasions !!!
I’m digressing here so back to the point – that particular person at work has had a pretty rough week thrust upon her this week, still part of the mess left behind by my predecessor. I thought I would try to brighten her week a little by letting her know that I appreciate and value her friendship and that no matter how dark the clouds might seem there is always a glimmer of sunlight lurking in the background somewhere.
So, MagicB, a motto I adopted a few years ago has been a proven chin lifter in trying times and I think maybe you should give it a go ....
No matter how much you might enjoy your job, nothing is ever 100% rosy 100% of the time and having someone at work you can confide in / vent to / bounce ideas off / bitch with is a vital part of our working lives. We spend so much of our adult lives there it would be a pretty miserable experience if you found yourself having to edit your conversation all day, every day.
It’s possibly one of the scariest parts of changing jobs – “Will I fit in?” … “Will I be accepted?”
When you have worked with, and presumably formed a bond with a group of people, the prospect of leaving that group and entering into a strange environment where you have to start all over again is more daunting (to me anyway) than the idea of possibly having to learn a whole new set of skills to be successful in a new job.
I’ve had a few changes of job over the years and I have been lucky enough to form a close bond with a fellow workmate in each case – I tend to build relationships with people at work pretty easily but I am very cautious, and selective, about who I allow close enough to be considered a ‘best buddy’ in the workplace. Usually it’s only ever one person – and that person is usually female and older ….. Not sure what that’s about?? Maybe a granny complex???
I can think of 3 women immediately who would club me to death on the spot if they ever happened to read this!!! :-)
Anyway … what’s the point of all this tripe?
Well, the place I work now is possibly as close as I could describe to being a dream job for me. Sure it has its issues – every workplace does – the systems work against us most of the time, the expectations are generally way too high, too much ‘secret squirrel’ business going on (secret squirrel = underhanded hidden agendas) but for me I see a job that at last offers security, advancement and acknowledgement of effort – all of which added to the fact that this particular job come up just when I needed it most means that over all I am pretty damn happy with where I am.
It was in this job also that I located a ‘best buddy’ in record breaking time. I tend to be very politically incorrect most of the time and I usually keep a low profile for a few months while I suss out the right victims to unleash my particular brand of humour on. As it turned out, this particular person is basically on the same wavelength and possibly because we were thrown together to clean up the same mess helped form a bond a lot faster than normal – and she’s not even older so the granny complex idea is out the window now.
Being similar in a number of ways helps too – same sense of humour, same political views – we both despise the garden gnome and the war monger (that’s similar enough for me) … but clearly there are big differences too – if nothing else, she has a vagina and I don’t …. Although I have been called a variation of the word on more than a few occasions !!!
I’m digressing here so back to the point – that particular person at work has had a pretty rough week thrust upon her this week, still part of the mess left behind by my predecessor. I thought I would try to brighten her week a little by letting her know that I appreciate and value her friendship and that no matter how dark the clouds might seem there is always a glimmer of sunlight lurking in the background somewhere.
So, MagicB, a motto I adopted a few years ago has been a proven chin lifter in trying times and I think maybe you should give it a go ....
“Fuck the fucking fuckers !”
3 comments:
Wow. I know I've said it before but, thank you!
I feel the same way - no offence to certain others, of course. You know I adore you and you in particular have made work tolerable this week - don't know what I would have done without you.
So I will stop now, before this turns into a mutual admiration convention and makes everyone want to vomit.
you 2 obviously have a fabulous friendship, this post made me feel all warm and fuzzy
Yeah me too, nice to see :)
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