The two previous posts may seem to contradict each other – but I don’t think so. Workplaces have evolved in many positive ways since the “good old days,” some of it the result of basic workplace learning, and some of it due to better personnel policies.
Still, any group of people coming together for 8 plus hours a day is going to reflect its fair share of the human condition playing out the pecking order, fragile egos, competition, gossip, hostility. In my shorthand I call it the workplace “soap opera.” When I’m in a good mood I’m generous and accepting of how widespread it is. When I’m in other states of mind I can be repelled and disappointed, but mostly I get discouraged.
Then I snap out of it, and know it’s time to roll up my sleeves.