Am I Becoming Weird?
I work in an entirely different time zone than all of my colleagues. I interact with them quite a bit on the phone, web conferencing, IM and email, of course, but generally speaking this interaction is on my terms. I initiate a call, I look at who's calling and decide if I'm going to answer, or I opt to look at my email.
It's peaceful.
So yesterday when I was at the gym, I almost fell off the eliptical machine when the person next to me burst through my bubble of "I won't see anyone I know here". It was the girlfriend of one of my niece's friends, a perfectly nice young woman. We chatted for a while, and then my time of punishment was over. But I felt vaguely disturbed. Should I change gyms so I don't have to see her?
Yeah, okay. I am becoming weird. I must embrace random acts of socialization, I guess.
4 comments:
Dude - what makes you think telecommuting has anything at all to do with that?
If I were to randomly encounter an acquaintance (with whom I am on good terms) in a place where I couldn't just grab a can of green beans and pretend that's all I wanted - I'd be miserable. It would be a reasonable expectation that I would interact with that other person. And I don't want to; if I wanted to interact with them they'd be a friend an not an acquaintance. And I work in a non-remote office.
It's the introvert/extrovert balance; those of us who can "do" extrovert aren't necessarily comfortable there - we just don't have to go through decon. procedures if we have to buy clients drinks for a couple of hours every couple of months. Being surprised in "your" space by unanticipated extroversion demands SUCKS. If it's any consolation, she probably felt as trapped as you did.
Okay, thanks for the affirmation, Margret. I know I can count on you!
Just to remind you that I read this blog regularly so it is a good thing that you pretended that it wasn't me that you ran into.
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It wasn't you, Bex. I'm always happy to see you at the gym. I'm talking about a casual acquaintance, darling! But thanks for reading and commenting...
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