Back in the office stress

Your office was very different to mine Sara. Lots of concentration needed, couldn’t chat and concentrate but everyone was happy.

Callistemon
Point taken, obviously there are some things that ask for total concentration, but in a general office environment, it’s nice to have a chat and a laugh during the working day.
I was thinking about it at work this morning, a lot of the time I was on the phone, and sometimes concentrating on what I was doing, so not chatting, but we were also talking quite a bit, admittedly, quite a bit about work, but we talked about the new school term, Boris and his social care plans, loft hatches, and the dangers of them falling down and killing someone, the merits of Mr Muscle, and all sorts of other stuff.
I really think knittingnovice would have disliked it a lot, but I see no harm.

Sara1954

Callistemon
Oh for goodness sake, you can do two things at once.

Not in my job you couldn't
But I wasn't in an office all the time.

If it’s like our office, not everyone is chatting at the same time, in my experience a happy work place is a productive work place.

You can’t concentrate properly on your work and hold a conversation about something totally unrelated to it at the same time. My experience of this sort of thing has been confined to tea breaks and lunch hours.

Callistemon
Oh for goodness sake, you can do two things at once.

Gwyneth

Shouldn’t they be working rather than talking about themselves?

I wondered that too!

I think it depends on your personality type, if you really dont enjoy an office environment, you cant force it. And the two different personality types find it very difficult to understand the other.

That's what I'm looking forward to about going back to the office is the human contact. I love hearing all the little details of my colleagues' lives and sharing mine and
I especially love the banter. It's what makes the world go around and what I've really missed. I would try joining in a bit more knittingnovice you might find you enjoy it.

It sounds pretty normal to me, in our office we talk about anything and everything, current affairs, our families, trivial bits of gossip, try joining in, you might find they’re nice people.

One way for you to "settle in" is to show an interest in others. Even if you don't really care what someone's nephew eats - joining in the conversation will help others to get to know you better.

I hope your next day goes better.

Luckily a few days. Merylstreep, the written word can cause misinterpretation. It is frustrating as I started just before lockdown so hadn't settled in, but people are still selfish.

Knittingnovice
Maybe your post is an indicator of why they didn’t phone you in lockdown.

Shouldn’t they be working rather than talking about themselves?

Will you have to go in every day?