Failure to Communicate

There has actually been a little drama going on in my life! Well, it depends who you talk to. I'm not exactly a drama llama, I keep to myself and don't spoil for fights. Most people I'm not close friends with find it easy to ignore me. UNLESS!! Something I've said could relate to them in their past, present or future. Which is probably why I'm not a big fan of people.

General Scenario:
Lucky Tiger: ....and that's my view of our political situation.
Random: Uh huh.
Lucky Tiger: This is one lovely day we're having, isn't it?
Random: Mmmm.
Lucky Tiger: Oh crap, my head's on fire!!
Random: You don't say.
Lucky Tiger: Don't look now but *you're* head is on fire too!!
Random: OMFGWTFHALP!!!1!!!111!!!!
Lucky Tiger: Lolz JKs
Random: ....what?

Lately I've been really bothered by the mushy subculture at work and all the sucking up I see. The sucking up is not confined to my workplace, I'm afraid. What I posted was about one particular suck up that was so disgusting and sloppy that the people around at that time had to wipe the excess drool off themselves, with no idea why.

It was pathetic, disgusting, uncalled for and really sad to watch. I couldn't stand it, to be honest. Previously I'd seen a lot of similar crap on facebook so I added that to my status: that I'm sick of seeing it. A co-worker saw my status and took offense.

After I'd posted, I'd left to go do whatever it is I do, probably hate monger and start small fires if you ask this person who decided my status was ALL ABOUT HER. She wrote several comments defending herself, a 'revenge' status and several inbox messages.

Well, I'm happy to break hearts. What was annoying was, she kept telling me she wasn't sucking up. Okay, so what's the problem? Status not compatible with your situation? Why are you getting all up in my face then? Why are you assuming that it's all about what you've done? Are you aware I have several people on my facebook, from various social and work circles?

So I broke it down for her and told her I didn't understand why she was making a drama out of it. To which she said that she wasn't aware it had become a drama. What the? I made a comment about life and you made it into war. What she should have done is just inbox me in the first place and ask if there was a problem with her. That would have been ten times better than writing a nice big passive aggressive status about how if people don't care, they should just delete her, it's only facebook and *she* doesn't care (obviously) and she's not sucking up and she can do what she wants and who cares?

Exactly, who cares? If my status offended her, there must have been something in the back of her mind worrying her that maybe she is a suck up. She told me that it should be obvious why she got angry, because her 'potential suck up' situation happened a mere half hour or so before mine. You know, because facebook updates me on EVERY SINGLE STATUS since the last time I logged in. Yeah, no. Especially when I'm on my phone and especially when this person isn't on my 'most interacted with' list.

To be honest, yeah, I hate the mushy culture at work. I think that being friends with each other is great, but the boundaries between co-workers and supervisors need to be respected. Love is a word that should be saved for spouses, family members and really good comics. I've seen a lot of people fail at friendships while working in senior roles, and people get fired, get hurt, get crap hours, get abuse and it just ruins everyone's day.

If you go over to your bosses' house and babysit their kids, call and text them constantly, take them out to dinner on a weekly basis, and all of that jazz... what happens when you mess up at work and they can't risk the friendship to criticise you? What happens when you both plan the shifts and you don't want people who aren't your friends around? What happens when you can both stand at the back chatting when there is work to be done? What happens when you get other people who were also 'just chatting' in trouble? What happens when someone else at work knows they can't talk to you about someone else's misconduct because you're their best friend? What happens when there's a promotion and you have to choose your best friend or a random who probably deserves it more?

There is a lot of mushiness between the people I work with on facebook and I really wonder about it. For every 'I loves you' and 'No, *I* love YOU' or any 'You shit rainbows and sunshine!' and 'Not as much as you fart out lollipops and smiles!' there are a lot of 'nobody loves me!!' updates. So, does telling them you love them really help? I'm honestly very curious.

Of course, a million people liked and commented on the revenge status. Three people commented on mine. I'm not out to win any popularity contests, and that's the way I like it. It does bother me when the second person my 'attack' was 'concentrated' on didn't read anything I wrote, and just supported the respondent's comments and told me that I had a lot to learn. The hell?

The hell I do. I may not be the noisiest person but that's because I don't feel comfortable imposing my voices and opinions on others. This means that I am a very good listener and I tend to get a fair view of each side before I make an opinion. I would NEVER follow a friend blindly into battle if I wasn't sure who the enemy was or why. A true friend wouldn't do that.

I did however, get several private messages of support regarding this issue. People are afraid to upset the apple cart, especially if they're the ones who could get crushed under it's wheels. A lot of people don't know what to do about me. Am I being funny or serious? Am I with them or against them?

Sometimes I wonder if it would be nice to tell everyone in the world your innermost feelings and desires, your hope and dreams, who you think is cute, what you think about your job and who your enemies are. To be able to post that dramatic stuff on facebook and still come into work the next day with a straight face. I could never do that.

Partly paranoia, partly self respect. I don't care about caring too much. If it's real, you'll know about it. To me, hearing people say 'I love you' or 'Thank you, that's great' all the time ruins it. You know they don't mean it, you know half the time they're just saying it to placate you, or get you to be quiet. If I started telling my friends that I wuvved them, well, good gosh, they'd probably have me carted off somewhere 'relaxing' so I could get back to my death threats.

I know this is only my view of the world. These people will probably think that I'm sad and unloved for posting this sort of stuff. Maybe what they do works for them and keeps them happy, I don't know. As for me though, I like to be by myself and not have to rely on other's moral support. This probably means I over rely on the people I like and probably have less friends than those other guys, but I count my friends in quality not quantity.