Thursday, August 20, 2009

Co-worker relationships, what's a girl to do?

I just started a new job two months ago, and I am having a hard time with the people I work with. This has never happened to be before. I am a social person, who is usually able to find common ground with people. I am super chatty, I can talk to anyone. But this place man is throwing me.

First off it is a small company of 20 people or less. And it is SILENT. Yes you read that right SILENT. The people here hardly ever interact with each other. It simply does not make sense to me. As time has gone on, I have created relationships with three of the people. Unfortunately one of which is now leaving the company. But those relationships at least are making it better.

The hardest part for me, is that the two other people in my department are the worst of all I think. Maybe I think that though, cause I would expect to have a closer relationship with them, and since I don't it is all the more apparent to me.

My boss has a way of not talking in full sentences. Or I don't even know if that is correct. He speaks in short, quickly to the point, sentences and then punctuates them with a head tilt and facial expressions. As if that motion is supposed to communicate to you the next sentence that should have come out of his mouth but didn't. We went on a business lunch today, and if he talked for more than 10 minutes in the almost 2 hours we were together I would be shocked. When I was younger I used to try and fill awkward silence. I don't do that anymore. Mainly because I have decided that quiet people are just socially lazy. There is no reason I should stand on my head to entertain you. If you are cool with the silence, so am I.

The woman who works beneath me, is the one who throws me the most. She is moody, and set in her ways. So basically anything that doesn't go the exact way she thinks it should is a reason to set her off. She has, in the two months we have worked together, sent me an e-mail about the ring on my cell phone disturbing her. (Which I found hilarious because as I stated I am her boss, and the phone call she was on when my loud ring disrupted her was a personal phone call) An e-mail on the correct way to face documents when filing them, which I don't do, I don't file she does the filing. And she stormed out of my office once talking about me all the down the hall simply because I asked her a question someone else had already asked her. Now I have dealt with people who adjust to new bosses, or different personalities adjusting to each other before, but I have never quite come across someone like this. I really don't know how to deal with her. If call her or go into her office, and she is on a personal phone call she won't get off the phone. Sometimes I will continue to stand by her desk so she knows it's kind of important, and she will eventually ask the person to hold on, place her hand over the receiver and say...what? with a snotty look on her face. When we are "getting along" she is fine, BUT she only talks about herself. I had started making small talk with her, asking about her kids or weekend, or what not to hopefully build our relationship. It worked somewhat, but I noticed she not once has ever asked me about my weekend, my family, my anything. And to be quite frank I don't really give a shit about her life. So after two months of the nonreciprocal chats, I have stopped.

I honestly don't know how to deal or relate with these two people. At first I thought it was just an adjustment period, but now I realize I think this is just how it is.

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