I’ve never made it a secret that I’m not happy with my workplace. There’s a huge amount of stress, everything is just rushed, and it’s just really not a fun place to be any more, at least not in my department.
One of the things that I think helps contribute to this is a sense of separation from my coworkers. I always find myself thinking in terms of “them” and “me”, instead of “us”. I don’t feel like a member of any team, and they’re certanly not people I consider friends. Just… guys who work in the same building I do, and for the same boss. I don’t really hear rumors or news or anything like that, so I always find out things far behind the curve. An awesome example of this is when I found out one of the guys’ wife was pregnant just a few weeks before she gave birth. Everyone else knew but me. They’re also an entirely different generation than I am – I’m not the baby of the group but almost all of my coworkers are older than me with families of their own, and completely different interests from me.
It’s also extremely frustrating trying to get their assistance with things that I can’t do on my own, since they all have their own projects and tasks they have to work on. It very much conveys a feeling of “How cute, he’s trying to be an engineer”.
Now I feel like I should clarify that any feelings of separation that may exist are probably exacerbated by the fact that I am physically separated from my coworkers by a good distance. They all sit in an open cubicle area just near the bosses office, while my desk is down the hallway, far enough away that I usually don’t get any office chatter or anything. I don’t really consider this a bad thing though – I really like that I can be alone for most of the day, and also the fact that I have a door I can close to isolate myself if needed. Being able to play music helps too.
It’s kind of weird to stop and think about. I don’t like that I’m separated, and yet I value that separation. <scratches head>
Edit 8/5: Awesome. We’re having a department wide meeting, right? Guess whose name didn’t get included.
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So today’s creative activity wasn’t anything major – just plucking at the guitar a bit and brainstorming some RP ideas before a nice long nap snuck up on me. However, the RP ideas are starting to take root and I’m hoping to get some of them actually on paper (disk?) later this week, starting tomorrow!