Feeling sorry for myself

Posted on 2007/11/13 11:54:36 (November 2007).

[Friday 9th November]
Today was my last day at work before my week off, and typically I had so many odds and ends to tie up that I didn't really get anything substantial done. In fact this seems to have become the norm recently - I have somehow got my finger in so many pies, and have so many people who need help from me for odd things, that I sometimes feel my job is more like working in a call centre than as a software engineer.

Since starting at this new job, one of the biggest let downs has been a complete failure to cuiltivate anything resembling a social life with the people I work with. I am essentially a foreigner in London and so was relying on the new job as a means to make friends etc. Now that isn't to say that I don't get on with the people I work with - they're mostly very nice people. However, until recently, I only really had daily interaction with a small team in London, and most of those people weren't really interested in doing stuff outside of work with their colleagues - quite reasonably so, some of them live outside of London and have families etc. Recently though our team has expanded and I was optimistic that among these new people I might be able to cultivate the occasional after work pub visit, which I think are so important for winding down and dealing with the stress of working in a job like mine.

Tonight was a bit of a blow to that though - a number of the new people went out, and I apparently wasn't invited. I took this as an excuse to spend the remainder of the evening wallowing in self pity. I sank into a bit of a malaise, and convinced myself that the reason I hadn't made any friends in London was actually just down to me, rather than the situation I was in.

So I went home around 7ish, had a quick dinner with Chie before she headed out for the evening - because she seems to have had no trouble making loads of friends in London - which only served to compound my self pity.

I cheered myself up a bit with a night of telly, and gratifyingly there seems to be plenty of good comedy on a Friday night - I watched QI, a strange thing called Free Agents, a couple of episodes of Father Ted and an episode of Flight of the Conchords. I even managed to fit in a couple of episodes of Heroes.

personally i'm never happier when the old ball and chain is out of my hair for a few hours.

seriously though, agree with the need to socialise with co-workers it does definitely improve the atmosphere.

Posted by i-cee at 2007/11/14 15:46:48.

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