Working in an office setting is a strange experience. In theory, you are there for one reason and one reason only: to complete the job for which you have been hired. You're supposed to come in, do your 8 hours and then leave. Some people are very good at that. Every day, they enter their office, turn on the lights, respond to email, and do their work. At the end of the day, they've caused no chaos, no kerfuffle. Nothing. Just work. That sounds pretty easy, right? But wait a minute, there's another approach that sullies everything.
What if you're the kind of person who wants to know what's going on with your colleagues? You ask simple questions like "so, how's it going?" It's part of your daily routine. It makes your day more interesting.
Sometimes the answer is simple and uncomplicated "fine, fine." Other times, it's more complicated, far more complicated. "I just found out that Susie has been rifling through my desk. I swear, she's trying to get my job. Yesterday, she told me I look unhappy and should find another job. What should I do?"
Uh oh. The big red, undulating danger sign turns on in your head. "Keep alert! Danger ahead!" Your inner warning signal tells you to walk away and not get involved, but your sensitive side (or is it really a devil perched on your shoulder) says get involved. Be sympathetic. Go ahead, say it. And you do. You manage to wipe Susie off the face of the Earth with one easy barbed comment (or should I say "sympathetic" comment). And so it begins.
Honestly, I'm not clear on which approach is best. I'm not very good at hunkering down and keeping my mouth shut, though a recent incident has led me to believe that ostrich pose might not be a bad idea.
Things have gotten ugly in my office. A now former colleague was involved in what I'll diplomatically call an "incident." She had been a model office citizen for several years, but toward the end, the company presented her with information that both surprised and enraged her. She went from quiet mouse to raging tiger in a matter of hours. To make matters worse, management didn't support her, she believed. Colleagues gathered in my office (I apparently have the biggest devil on my shoulder and everyone knows it). Accusations flew right and left. There were sides to take, and I chose one. I stated my opinion (behind a closed door, of course). When the session ended, we were all as enraged as our former colleague and we were out for blood. Well, that's a little dramatic. I don't know what we were out for. We wanted justice, but honestly, we didn't know how to get it. We weren't even sure it was possible.
We made suggestions to our colleague (via email as she had essentially abandoned her office at that point). Looking back, I suspect we may have escalated things unintentionally. We didn't mean to make things worse. We wanted to make things better for her, but what we ended up doing was making things worse for ourselves. Ironic, isn't it? Our colleague got fired. She still has to do what the company has insisted she do, and we managed to embroil ourselves in an uncomfortable vat of oil.
I guess that's my point. If each of us had stayed in our offices and not talked, nothing would have happened. Our former colleague, would have disappeared into the ether and that would have been it. Instead, what's happened is that there is now a huge divide within the group. Some are on the side of management and the others are on the side of our former colleague. Management is profoundly angry at some of us. "There are two sides to every story and you don't know our side." The problem with that explanation is that if management isn't willing to tell us what the other side is, how can we do anything but side with our colleague, whose side we know very well.
Though I want justice and want to be sympathetic to my colleagues, I've decided that the ostrich pose is best right now. Head down, nose clean. That's my new motto. We'll see how long that lasts. Wonder whose desk Susie is rifling through today?
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