Office Emotion

There's many characters in the workplace. You got your thespians, authoritarians, team players, slackers, and jackasses that remain annoyingly positive, uttering every meaningless word or phrase for the most disgusting kind of enthusiasm. These people make my skin crawl.

I've wondered a lot about these folks (the extremely positive ones), and I'm sure these people pass me off as a sloppy creep who is miserable most of the time. I have theories. I think a lot of them, and I'm generalizing (cause I enjoy generalizing) were through something really rough or tragic, and to keep moving and living life in a functional way, they've forced themselves into this happy face. Most people are oblivious to these masks that they wear, but I'm not. I sensitive to it. I see it and try to avoid it at mostly all costs. I don't understand it. I come from a long line of angry depressed miserable Germans with bone pain and problems. Don't bring that shit around me.

When I encounter these people, they can sense that I sense what's going on. There's an unspoken understanding between me and them. I leave them alone and they leave me alone. It's completely written on my face and how I carry myself that I shit on everything positive and that I have no time for your cliches. You ask me how I'm doing. I say, "One day at a time," and get on with it.

Their positivity is almost insulting to a chap like me. It doesn't come across as genuine. The only people I'm really interested in talking to ever, are those I can discuss my sordid past with, or make poop jokes with, otherwise, don't waste my energy. I understand that there is workplace protocol and I follow it to a "T" by mumbling my brief cliches and moving forward, limping ahead, most likely with my head down.

Fortunately for me, there are only a couple people around here that I can apply this too. Most people keep to themselves and don't degrade me with their "created" perpetual bliss.

((please feel free to comment if you've encountered such people in your own environs))