The past couple of days have been pretty much normal except for one thing. Twice in two days other peoples problems have been translated into something that became my problem. I’ll admit straight away it was me that made it my own problem, however let me explain why as you can probably relate.
Take scenario one. I was aware of a situation where someone walked out in work. Later it was brought up in conversation and suddenly the person snapped at me like I had said something offensive. At this point all I knew was I managed to piss the person off and I got lashed back at for it. I don’t deliberately piss people off of course, sometimes it just happens. If I was pushing a point I’d understand getting snapped at, but I wasn’t. It was the first time I had mentioned it and it happened completely without warning. Not only did it take my by surprise but it was embarrassing too. Thankfully for me the lash back was said quietly and without a fuss but there were a few people who heard it. Some of them later agreed it was out of order but as it didn’t involve them there was nothing they could do.
The second scenario was in reply to something I said to a colleague over Facebook as a reply to a status they posted. Someone thought it appropriate to tell me that my reply had a lot of things wrong with it (in their opinion of course) and that they didn’t know where to start. I politely asked them to tell me privately what the problems were. I was confronted with a lecture on what I should and shouldn’t have said to this person given the situation. Now I don’t mind being given advice but being plain and simply told what I did was wrong and being snotty about it is just insulting. The way I came across may not have been the best but it certainly wasn’t intended to insult the person I was talking to, and apparently telling the truth no matter how much it hurts or how inappropriate it might be is completely wrong in the eyes of the person I got the lecture from.
I took both of these personally and eventually decided enough is enough. I have now removed nearly all of the people I work with from Facebook except for those I actually consider a friend and not just a colleague. There is a fine line between work and home and it got well and truly crossed in the last few days. Even though only one was an actual confrontation I don’t see any reason to keep these sorts of relationships outside of the workplace. In future though, it would be a good idea for those who have personal issues to keep them out of the workplace too. But that’s just my opinion of course.
As a final note to anyone who works with me, I don’t hate you and I don’t want to hate you, but maybe you could keep your own issues to yourself and perhaps be a bit more tactful on how you approach problems you have with me or something I’ve done.