I apologize if this isn’t allowed, but I wasn’t sure exactly where to put it. Just let me know if it’s inappropriate and I’ll delete. Thanks.

I’m a loner, so my life is basically just work and the internet. Two of my coworkers are among my favorite people in the whole world, but one of them doesn’t like the other one and will complain to me about how they don’t like them.

We work incredibly closely together…only a few feet apart for hours on end. Our job also necessitates that we frequently communicate with one another. In the beginning, I absolutely loved it and there was no conflict.

Now, I often get my one coworker complaining to me that the other is lazy. And I’m not going to lie, the “lazy” one definitely takes more breaks than everyone and doesn’t at all work as hard as the others. But that doesn’t really bother me because she’s a super incredibly nice and friendly person.

But over time it has bothered my hardworking coworker more and more and driven a wedge into what I would have once considered to be a friendship between the 3 of us.

It never gets to the point where there is yelling or arguments or anything, but it absolutely ruins the mood and then I hear about it later.

I interact with these people for hours on end every single day and I’m just not sure how to handle it. I’ve been struggling to know how to deal with it for months now.

To top it all off it gives me endless paranoia that the hardworking coworker secretly resents me and hates me too. This stuff never used to happen before, but know I feel like it’s all that happens.

  • @[email protected]
    6•11 months ago

    When you take yourself out of the equation, I’d put money on them working it out. You guys are in bad habits.

    Edit: Sorry, didn’t see this part:

    Unfortunately it still won’t help with the issue of the tension in the room when they are together.

    That tension is them not getting along, you’re going to have to decide to get along with them individually and make it light when you’re with each other one on one. It’s not the 3 of you if one of you isn’t into that, it’s 2 of you at a time.

    I also think that you can’t bring back the old times, hopefully they decide to do that. But if they don’t, you have to have a back up plan of making work fun for you without them getting along.

    • @dingusOPEnglish
      2•11 months ago

      When you take yourself out of the equation, I’d put money on them working it out.

      Doubtful. The hardworking one doesn’t confront people when she has an issue with something. I’m not really purposefully “in the equation” to begin with though. I just exist in the space where it’s happening.

      You guys are in bad habits.

      Sorry, what do you mean by this?

      • @[email protected]
        2•11 months ago

        I also edited that post, but

        The hardworking one doesn’t confront people when she has an issue with something

        There isn’t much you can do with that except be kind and clear that you’re not going to either and you like them both so you don’t want to hear about the other.

        Sorry, what do you mean by this?

        Bad habits would be,

        • hard working has expectations that everyone will work the same way (bad habit)
        • less hard working does their own thing and no one talks to them
        • hard working complains to you about less hard working (bad habit) and you don’t shut it down (bad habit)
        • less hard working has no idea of what’s going on and you probably treat them different because you don’t know what to do. Your freezing (not a bad habit but something that can be adjusted to fit the situation)
        • @dingusOPEnglish
          2•11 months ago

          Well I appreciate you very much for the advice.

          Unfortunately, it turns out that one of them just quit so this whole post is moot now. If only I had waited a few days to post then all of this wouldn’t be necessary.

          I’m also sad to lose one of the people I care about.

      • @[email protected]
        1•11 months ago

        You may think you’re “just receiving” info when you listen, but listening is an active thing. You are sending signals when you listen, and you have the ability to shut down the words coming your way.

        You are participating whether you chose to or not. By being a receptive audience to the message, you’re cultivating the message. In this case the message is “Hey let’s have a negativity party”.