Wednesday 3 December 2008

I've got enough friends thank you.

What is it about Christmas that everyone I work with wants to be my friend?

I work in an in house IT Support department so spend my day apologising to people (and I use the term people in the broadest possible sense) for things they've done through a combination of stupidity, impatience and arrogance. I'm sure they highly skilled individuals but put them in front of a piece of technology and they have intellect of a lobotomized ape.

Now it's Christmas though and everyone wants to be everyone's friend. I don't hang out with these people for 50 weeks of the year, why now do they all want to be my friends? I've got nothing against them personally (well not all of them) but all we've got in common is we're trapped in the same god forsaken building for 37 hours a week. During the week I'm paid to listen to them drone on but why would I want to spend my free time with them?

Incidentally I know you've already thought it but, yes I have got friends and yes they are real.

The other criticism I get is 'why do you hate Christmas?' I don't, I love Christmas, the presents, the excessive eating and drinking, the crappy television, not being at work. It's just I don't want to spend it with the same people who spend their working day making my life more difficult than it needs to be.

There is truly only one good thing about the Christmas period at work, when I explain to people that I don't want to take part in the staff drinks/meal/party/pantomime (yes they're really writing a pantomime) is the hurt look they get, like you've just told them they're parents left them on the doorstep of an orphanage not because they couldn't look after them but just because they couldn't be arsed.