I Have Work Friends. When Did That Happen?

Today was my first day back at work after a week and half off of vacation. (Sidenote: If I could move to Europe right now, I would. My trip was fantastical. I love the Mediterranean. Everyone go there now.)

The first day back is always the worst. No matter what stress is involved. I spent two hours checking emails on Saturday and I still didn't get all caught up until 5PM today. The first day back almost always involves a lot of meetings, eating lunch at your desk, popping multiple Excedrin, and being "invisible" on Gchat so that you're not bombarded by all your friends wanting to know how your vacay was.

Today was not just a day of stress for me however. Today was a day of realizations. And that realization was that I have work friends.

I've been saying for a while now that I don't have many work friends. I actually moan about it a lot on this blog (and to WG1) and that's mainly because at my last job in NYC I felt like I had a lot of friends to commiserate with. I had people to eat lunch with, talk about reality TV with, and just generally chat with. And after a long vacation (or even just a day off), I would spend hours catching up with my NYC coworkers.

So I felt a little sad this morning when I got to work and I didn't have my NYC coworkers to dish with. Of course my new cube mates (I switched desks recently so I have new cubicle neighbors) asked me how my trip was, but they didn't ask me about any details.

Later in the day, I went to hang out with one of my work friends in her office. As I was complaining about all the work I have to do in the next few weeks, she responded with, "Yea you might want to get on that since you've spent the last hour making the rounds chatting up all your work buds. Have you done any work today other than socialize?"

And it was then I realized that I had work friends. Without even realizing it I had wandered aimlessly around the office for an hour stopping to chat with coworkers about my trip and their weekends (turns out one of my coworkers was born in Turkey! Who knew!). An hour! Spent talking to coworkers! And I thought I had no work friends.

Turns out I have nothing to moan about after all. After eight months at my new company, I have work friends. And that's a pretty nice realization to start a week off with.