As Michael Corleone says......

[Aspychata]

Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

Bam, going thru this at work now. Kinda like they present themself as a friend, but there is a tiny little voice that constantly says, you will be burned at the stake, get your rosary and start saying Hail Mary because you are a giant idiot if you truly believe they really are your friend.

Anybody have encounters with frienemy co-workers???

 

[SolarPoweredNightOwl]

Many times. They're annoying, but invariably not as good at office politics as they think they are. I survive. They don't.

 

[GadAbout]

Actually, I'm a bit defensive anytime anyone in any setting seems TOO friendly. I wanna know what their angle is.

 

[Aspychata]

Kinda have the good cop/bad cop routine being run on me. She is saying l am good, and they are bad, now say something bad about them so l can string you up on our company xmas tree and offer you to the unemployment office.

 

[All-Rounder]

I read some people were able to become close friends with their initial enemies, and they even defended them at some point. That sounds good enough.

To me, it's very hard as I'm paranoid of expressing my feelings and being honest with people who disrespect me continuously, and I fear if I let my weaknesses seen they will be taken advantage of further. But I suppose if someone really wanted to play on my weaknesses, eventually they would get some hints. [And after all, this is one of the fears pointed out by guides to expressing feelings.] I think people who are being really really insensitive like matters with disrespecting me as a woman or for something simple, those are such a tough deal to talk to and I tend to avoid them but it only postpones matters and potentially enhances them.

I remember countering something a classmate did with the right course of action, telling a teacher about it, putting him in the spotlight in the middle of the class as others backed me up. Ever since he's not bothered me anymore. Attempts to talk to him and threaten him weren't taken seriously until he was really in that situation.

 

[Varzar]

Kinda have the good cop/bad cop routine being run on me. She is saying l am good, and they are bad, now say something bad about them so l can string you up on our company xmas tree and offer you to the unemployment office.

Oh how I do NOT miss office politics.. It's amazing any work gets done sometimes..

 

[Bolletje]

The hospital was a snake pit. Most of my peers were friendly on the surface, but they were waiting for me to stumble and fall so they could prove themselves to be smarter and more competent. I loved my work, but not that aspect of it.

My current office has office politics as well, but I refuse to participate. I just keep to myself mostly and make sure to be friendly to everyone and not participate in gossip.

 

[Aspychata]

The hospital was a snake pit. Most of my peers were friendly on the surface, but they were waiting for me to stumble and fall so they could prove themselves to be smarter and more competent. I loved my work, but not that aspect of it.

My current office has office politics as well, but I refuse to participate. I just keep to myself mostly and make sure to be friendly to everyone and not participate in gossip.

Thank you, l needed to hear this!

 

[Major Tom]

Yep, I don't talk much to co-workers because of it. Just small talk.

 

[paloftoon]

I just say with coworkers in general, if you don't feel comfortable with taking the risk of personal friendship, then just keep it professional only. You can do some people a favor by the ones who treat you well, be willing to give them a really good recommendation. Be okay to be friends with them once they switch companies.

 

[Aspychata]

Badda bing badda boom

My great grandmother came to America from Italy in a boat. God bless you grandma and your beautiful daughter, my grandmother. Being on the spectrum, l don't think l could have made that boat trip. May you both rest in peace.

 

[HidinginPlainSight]

Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

Bam, going thru this at work now. Kinda like they present themself as a friend, but there is a tiny little voice that constantly says, you will be burned at the stake, get your rosary and start saying Hail Mary because you are a giant idiot if you truly believe they really are your friend.

Anybody have encounters with frienemy co-workers???

I've fallen victim to this before. I'm not very good with ulterior motives and can't detect them in other people very well. I can't even tell when two people at work don't like each. I was told once that two people were basically mortal enemies. It sort of surprised me because I thought they were friends. As it turns out, they both have formal grievances against each other. They both work within sight of my office and as far as I can tell, they seem on friendly terms.

On a personal level, someone once tried to get me fired because they were worried about their own position being eliminated (same position as me). I never realized anything was being plotted until I was called into my supervisor's office. The claims were not taken seriously and nothing came of it, but I still wonder if I should have known something was up. This person was friendly and I was genuinely shocked when that person was named as the person who made the completely false claims and actually went as far to plant false evidence.

People can really do some awful things when they feel threatened and some have no scruples about who suffers for their own self preservation.

 

[Aspychata]

All my life l have come across cliques of people who work together to get someone out the door. So l understand it isn't so much me, it just personal politics. My best job was being alone, that was perfect. This current position, for the most part, the staff is okay to deal with. Like a earlier poster said, no gossiping, just work only is the only way to roll. I actually have made friends with some of the clique in past jobs. This one lady may have been on the spectrum. She was bullied a bit because she had OCD issues, but we got along great because cleaning the store wasn't my bag. But she could seriously flip in to that mode. I just had to carefully guide her when it came to cashing out the EOD tally. I had another female tell me she wanted to commit suicide because of a supervisor was calling her heavy. The funny thing, the supervisor wasn't actually a petite person herself. War stories, l have boatloads of them.