Stress and change at work, well I just sit there

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Anyone else finding it hard when all your work colleagues get stressed due to change within your department. You see i'm lucky in that work 'itself' doesn't affect me, well not in a day to day moaning kind of way. The thing that stresses me is my alienation and interacting with my work colleagues, because the office I work in is very close knit and the pattern that happens each day is 1 person moans and rants and there is a shared negativity towards something this then becomes the topic of conversation and over a period of time, it can grow into something else and then it returned to again a few days later possibly. I just sit there quiet and while everyone else is worrying and moaning about the bad situation we're in, I just take it on the chin, I don't know why

The same thing has happened to me at all of the food-service/waitressing jobs I've had. A manager would announce some really minor change, like pizza dough needing to be risen for 60 minutes, instead of 30. The rest of the employees would immediately fall into complaining about how this would completely change their whole work day, how the pizza quality would suffer, how the manager had just changed the rule to be vindictive. Meanwhile, I'd be hiding in the kitchen, pretending to be really busy, because I knew I couldn't even pretend to be upset. I have no idea why this happens.

You are both intelligent people. That may be the difference.

Many people need to complain. I had an employee tell me strait to my face (when she had complained about something SO trivial she couldn't deny it) she had to complain about something, it was just who she was.

My time as a manager was very similar to your example. These changes are not made to be vindictive. It takes too much precious time to be vindictive and nasty. Sometimes the word comes down from above and it's your job to make it happen. Other times it really is a change for the better. Maybe you can let your coworkers know that if that's all they have to complain about they must really have great jobs.

Some people need better things to complain about. My boss couldn't understand why I didn't complain until I got to know her and told her some of my bad experiences. After you face true adversity, the silly stuff just doesn't compare.