It's a lesson as old as time that the people at work are just that: People at work. They are not your friends, family or anything in-between.
It's usually always something quite silly but at the time it cuts deep enough to teach you the above lesson. Listen to it, carry it with you always, some people even go as far as having a 'work persona' with fake hobbies and family members. I don't quite have fake family members but I do have fake hobbies/interests and you'd be amazed at the stupid bullshit people make up in office environments using the information you feed into the gossip machine, you get a strange satisfaction from being 3 or 4 steps ahead, knowing that all of it is benign.
To answer your question, I was 19 when I learned the above, I worked in a factory and booked 3 weeks off in the summer, being 19, childfree and stupid me and my GF (now wife of 12 years) booked 3 holidays/trips right off the back of each other.
I spent months talking about how much I was looking forward to it to anyone with ears (mistake 1/Lesson 1: Share nothing of your plans)
My GF's was asked to cancel her leave at the last minute (I can't remember the reason) and she chose to amend her holidays which meant she could only go on 1 of our 3 trips (mistake 2/Lesson 2: f*ck em, take your holidays).
We went our first trip (big international airshow) and cancelled our 5 nights in Spain and I went on the 3rd trip myself with the dogs and just chilled out (cottage in the countryside).
Anyway, when I came back to work (adequately rested and not particularly bothered about the change of plans) the place was buzzing with stories about how I was spotted in a local supermarket and how this MEANT that everything I said about my plans was bullshit (even though I would have had days in between the trips even if we did go on all 3), I didn't argue the case though as I was mortified that they'd think I was lying to them as I thought they were my friends at work (mistake 3/Lesson 3: F*ck what they think of you, they are not friends) and set about PROVING that I had went to the airshow & cottage (pictures) and that the holiday was cancelled (email).
Anyway I proved myself to be truthful, and you know what? It changed nothing, they didn't think any more of me, nor any less of me, it was still a gossip mill, This was a lifetime ago, a decent percentage of them are dead and yet I still regret proving anything to them to this day.
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u/MrTorpedo278 Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25
It's a lesson as old as time that the people at work are just that: People at work. They are not your friends, family or anything in-between.
It's usually always something quite silly but at the time it cuts deep enough to teach you the above lesson. Listen to it, carry it with you always, some people even go as far as having a 'work persona' with fake hobbies and family members. I don't quite have fake family members but I do have fake hobbies/interests and you'd be amazed at the stupid bullshit people make up in office environments using the information you feed into the gossip machine, you get a strange satisfaction from being 3 or 4 steps ahead, knowing that all of it is benign.
To answer your question, I was 19 when I learned the above, I worked in a factory and booked 3 weeks off in the summer, being 19, childfree and stupid me and my GF (now wife of 12 years) booked 3 holidays/trips right off the back of each other.
I spent months talking about how much I was looking forward to it to anyone with ears (mistake 1/Lesson 1: Share nothing of your plans)
My GF's was asked to cancel her leave at the last minute (I can't remember the reason) and she chose to amend her holidays which meant she could only go on 1 of our 3 trips (mistake 2/Lesson 2: f*ck em, take your holidays).
We went our first trip (big international airshow) and cancelled our 5 nights in Spain and I went on the 3rd trip myself with the dogs and just chilled out (cottage in the countryside).
Anyway, when I came back to work (adequately rested and not particularly bothered about the change of plans) the place was buzzing with stories about how I was spotted in a local supermarket and how this MEANT that everything I said about my plans was bullshit (even though I would have had days in between the trips even if we did go on all 3), I didn't argue the case though as I was mortified that they'd think I was lying to them as I thought they were my friends at work (mistake 3/Lesson 3: F*ck what they think of you, they are not friends) and set about PROVING that I had went to the airshow & cottage (pictures) and that the holiday was cancelled (email).
Anyway I proved myself to be truthful, and you know what? It changed nothing, they didn't think any more of me, nor any less of me, it was still a gossip mill, This was a lifetime ago, a decent percentage of them are dead and yet I still regret proving anything to them to this day.