This post is dedicated to all work mates in my life. Though there may be those that I've not the chance to properly get to know, I cannot deny that at least a part of their aura of influence have touched my life.
I have been working for more than 7 years already in four different companies (one being on 1-year contract). Though I’ve not worked long enough, I've noticed quite a similarity in all of them.
On the first day of a common employment, everyone you see at the workplace is your colleagues. Then acquaintances start to form, usually due to being in the same vicinity, department or related work matters. Here, I'll take my experience in the latest company I worked in as an example.
The first person you see is usually the HR Manager, who then introduces you to your boss you're working for. Your boss will then get his assistant to introduce you around your department. In this case, the first person I really got acquainted with was the assistant. After that, your first task is given, and in my case was to finish up a proposal with a newly introduced colleague by 5pm the same day. Another acquaintance here.
Fast forward, as the first week go by, you'd have at least 5-10 acquaintances. You would have asked them questions, lunched with them, and casual talk as well. Out of this 5-10 people, sub-consciously the third level of the 'hierarchy of needs' starts kicking in; your social needs and sense of belonging. Psychologically you begin to seek like-minded people, looking for that personality click which brings to another level; friends.
I'm not sure with some of you, but in my experience, within two years, I would have no more than three to five friends from the company. The others will remain pure colleagues or acquaintances. A "friend from workplace", in my definition is that, someone I do not attach the word "ex-colleague" when I mention them. That is, I'd use "Oh, my friend said the same thing last time" rather than "Oh, my ex-colleague said the same thing last time." A friend is someone who has reached the level where you don't associate the company with him/her anymore, and they tend to be someone who's still in contact with you long after either one, or both of you have left the company.
In my experience as well, there'll always be some colleagues who I've not even spoken to at all in two years. I blame that on being introvert. Haha. Anyway, here's the difference between just colleagues and acquaintances. Acquaintances are those you have their mobile phone numbers in your hand phone, but to contact colleagues, you usually call the company line.
The point here, being human, you cannot escape the cycle of friendship, even though you’re in a non-social place. At the same time, being in that non-social place, you would not have enough time or energy to befriend everyone, without disruption to your own productivity. Thus the communication topics will relate around work or sometimes just a chat of opinions about current issues, and hardly are there questions about each other’s life. Lastly, there also will always be those you would recognize the face and sometimes name, when you see them in public, who you would just raise your eyebrow or smile to acknowledge them, but no words would be exchanged.
Such is the complexity of relationships. :D To all my friends (whom I got to know from my workplaces), keep in touch, and wey, bila nak jumpa for makan lagi?! To all my acquaintances, together we'll put the effort to keep in touch, but my sincerest apologies should Time splits us up as pure ex-colleagues again. To all my colleagues and ex-colleagues, good luck in your life and God willing, we'll meet again.
To everyone out there, thank you for being a part of my life's history.
No comments:
Post a Comment