An important part of life is building relationships. These relationships range from lovers, to children, to the cashier scanning through your groceries. Our days revolve around these interconnections that we have with the rest of the people with whom we share this world. One of the major relationship bonds we form is with the people we spend so much time with: the people at work.

Oh, our co-workers! Aren’t they marvelous, wonderful, spectacular folks? Some of those most amazing people in the whole, wide world!

That should be as far as any of my co-workers have read, so let’s get down to the brass tacks now. Anyone with whom you spend eight hours a day, five days a week is going to get on your nerves one way or another. Depending on the size of your organization, you may have a lot of individuals wearing at your nerves. This is inevitable and it’s okay. It’s difficult to accustom yourself to different personalities and the quirks that come with them.

I have one co-worker who has a strange affection for fake food. Her keyboard wrist-rest is a loaf of French bread and her mouse wrist-rest is a bun. Another co-worker is always about a foot further into my personal bubble than I would care her to be. I’ve run my chair over her toes but that doesn’t seem to deter her. Yet another has a counseling background and won’t let me politely lie to her when I tell her I’m fine. I’m not fine because I just tried to eat fake bread and stumbled over another colleague’s foot.

Aside from their peculiarities, I work with very good people – but they drive me crazy. I’ve come to discover that insanity isn’t terrible. The trade-off is that they make the days I have to drudge through my duties much more tolerable. We are involved is some stressful work and I depend on them for support as they can depend on me. Despite all the different ways they may find to dance on my last nerve, I’m glad that they’re with me.

Keri lives in Boyle Street. Keri lives in Boyle Street. Hopefully, we at the paper don’t dance on her nerves too much. Maybe just a slow waltz.. Maybe just a slow waltz.