"the clique"

Periodically I’ll get the most random person telling me a story or their thoughts at work. I mean a person who I never really carry a conversation with. Today this woman (I say woman, not co-worker because I’ve never worked on any projects with her) stopped me in the hallway to find out my thoughts on the training of Photoshop. I thought it was fine with me considering I already know the basics. Like many conversations, she was the one who had a problem with the training. Then after about five minutes of talking she finally admitted it had nothing about the training – it was about who was leading the training. A group of three girls came up with the idea – the same group of girls this woman doesn’t like. She didn’t really give a reason. She just said she thought they were fake.

I felt kind of bad for this woman because she’s in her 40’s and still hasn’t figured it out yet. For blogging sake, lets call these girls “the clique” (because that’s what they are). You know how there is always that clique that hangs out together. The clique tends to stick with their own crowd. It’s much like high school but it transcends into the workplace. These are the girls that typically go to lunch together, get coffee together, do happy hour together and occasionally do a double date together.

I imagine one day the woman overheard “the clique” talking about going out to lunch or the mall. The clique didn’t invite her. Probably a couple of months later “the clique” finally realized the woman and decided to invite her since she was sitting there by herself. By that time, the woman thought it was a pity invitation so she declined.

I felt bad for the woman. I’ve been there. You keep wondering why they haven’t invited you or why they don’t talk to you. The woman just hasn’t figured out yet. Do you really want to be part of something like that? Not to mention the minute you are in “the clique” and you start sharing your personal life; the next thing you know it’s all around the office. Call me unsociable, or maybe it’s just the fact I was never in “the clique,” but why care? After being rejected all in grade school, it doesn’t faze me. I enjoy being alone, considering I can’t carry an intelligent conversation with half the idiots in this world. In fact, I think its great when you are not the clique because it makes it that much easier when you become their boss.

So there was only one thing I could tell the woman today – just let it go!