Working in an office

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Poppy9 wrote: »

I found that very strange as I have personally never witnessed a group of people purposely moving one chair away from the group to drive home that the person was an outsider. I really can't imagine one person saying "lets move X's chair to let her know we don't like her" and everyone saying "yes, great idea".

I've seen this a few times...... firstly by school girls (to be expected) and then by (mainly) office girls in their early to mid 20's. Some people it would seem don't grow up!

j.e.j.

Ah, the joys of working in an office full of women.. I remember it well!!

poet123

j.e.j. wrote: »

Ah, the joys of working in an office full of women.. I remember it well!!

Plenty men in my office and they can be equally difficult but in different ways.

balletshoes

poet123 wrote: »

Plenty men in my office and they can be equally difficult but in different ways.

I can certainly think of one male colleague I'd like to fit an on/off/mute switch to in the office .

Netwizard

j.e.j. wrote: »

Ah, the joys of working in an office full of women.. I remember it well!!

I work with an office full of women. Bloody nightmare. I now work nightshifts in the same office, on my own!! :beer:

asusasus

Big thank you to everyone for their input, helpful to get even the devils advocate viewpoint. Monday morning tomorrow so I'm starting anew!

FatVonD

I don't think my post is going to be particularly helpful as I'm not the world's best manager myself but I do think that some people resent someone newer coming in above them, were you promoted above the other women?

I had a difficult situation at work with a junior employee that was rude, belligerent and childish. I let her get away with it for a while because at first I was doing the job on a freelance basis and didn't want to rock any boats. Then, once I was made a permanent member of staff, I didn't want to seem to have undertaken a complete personality transformation but I did deal with her eventually.

With hindsight I wish I'd done it sooner. People like that rely on you being too embarrassed to confront their frankly juvenile behaviour.

Poppy9

Hi OP. How did today go? I was thinking of you today while in work and looking around the room to see if anyone looked like they might feel that way - I know I should have been doing work:p

I passed the time of day with most of the office today and thankfully no one came to mind.

I did wonder as I went for a walk alone lunchtime if people still lunched together. When I started work it was expected you spent your lunchtime with others but over the years it seems to have died out. I personally prefer to lunch alone. I sometimes walk up town with others if we are going same time but we then go our own ways. One of the girls in work used to put me under pressure to have lunch with her every single day. She was quite needy and I felt tied and that I had to come up with an excuse everyday if I didn't want. The truth is I just like my own space and as over the years they have squeezed office space so we now work on top of one another a bit of space is lovely if only for half an hour.

We do have the odd organised lunch but we tend to stay out for afternoon!!!

asusasus

I had a very productive day today, got lots of work done which made it a good day and also a very quick day! I went out of my way to engage with people today , and everytime I overheard a comment I tried not to immediately assume it was about me, which really helped too. Maybe I was getting stuck in a rut, so far in that I began to think every little thing was about me cos I was so paranoid.


Thanks everyone for your help!

asusasus

My manager is very mumsy, it's actually quite comforting, though I know some people would take offence but I don't mind when she walks past and just touches my shoulder and asks if everything is ok.

A good manager makes a big difference, I'm glad there are people like her who were made for that role and fit it so well.

She is one of the reasons I have stuck it out so long, she is always encouraging and honest when need be.