There are two kinds of people in this world: those who view their colleagues as family and those for whom work ceases to exist as soon as they punch out.
Recently, reddit user “Flashy-Menu-5587” was pressured into feeling guilty for not taking one for the team after a colleague asked to cover for her because of her daughter’s recital. Feeling that people have no right to shame someone for choosing personal time over helping colleagues out, the author of the post turned to the trusted “Am I the [Jerk]” community to get an external perspective.
Some people prefer to be strict about their work-life ethics, even if that doesn’t gel with colleagues’ expectations
Image credits: Polina Zimmerman (not the actual photo)
So this woman was surprised when all of a sudden she was shamed for choosing personal time over helping a colleague out
Image credits: Pavel Danilyuk (not the actual photo)
Image credits: photopashova (not the actual photo)
Misunderstandings like this help to explain why bonding with coworkers is falling out of favor
While there’s an undeniable truth that the social cohesion of the mid-twentieth century has changed for better or worse, accelerated by remote or hybrid work models that came into fashion after the pandemic forced us to reprogram how we perceive work-life balance; it’s actually been in decline for decades now.
As the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress found in its report, “Between the mid-1970s and 2012, the average amount of time Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 spent with their coworkers outside the workplace fell from about two-and-a-half hours to just under one hour [per week].” Combine that with a recent study done by BetterUp, claiming that almost 1-in-2 (American) workers define their colleagues just as coworkers, and you could think that most of us treat our workspace friendships as purely transactional.
Image credits: seventyfourimages (not the actual photo)
Despite where we cross the line between workplace and personal life, studies show that people who feel part of the team and can rely on colleagues have a significantly lower chance of burnout. Of course, each to his/her/their own, as this story proves.
Still, more and more workers feel less inclined to socialize and get to know colleagues outside work because of the increasing turnover rates, stating relationships with coworkers as the least important factor of job satisfaction. Surprisingly, Gen Z members are the ones who value being part of the workplace tribe the most, with numbers dropping almost twofold compared to people in their 40s.
Although Flashy-Menu-5587’s boundaries clashed with the expectations some colleagues had for her, stories such as this is an important reminder that no two people are the same and their notion of workplace relationships might be totally different. That’s why the golden rule of thumb in similar cases is to treat others the way you want to be treated yourself. After all, no man is an island.
The author also clarified a few things about the situation
Image credits: Flashy-Menu-5587
Someone raised an important question about the author’s morale
Most people, however, sided with the author saying there’s nothing wrong with drawing a clear line in the sand
The post Person Goes For A Solo Picnic Instead Of Taking Over Coworker's Work, Wonders If She's A Jerk first appeared on Bored Panda.
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