Working life is an onslaught of things more than just work. Small minds at work, plant seeds that are like a slow poison infiltrating and influencing your mind. You don't even know it until you look back on all things you said and thought and wonder why you not only went along with it, but participated in all of it.
I strongly believe there is no ill intention behind it all, it is the action that breeds unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Just being aware of this is not near enough, you need to catch yourself before you jump into it all, because once you do, you will not stop until you reach the bottom (which is where you run of things to complain and/or gossip and /or lament etc. about). Never in my life would I have thought that it would be so hard to shut these people out and that they would be able to influence so much of my attitude towards work related issues. Such thoughts neither produce anything constructive nor productive and as such people of such a nature never end up being more than where those thoughts bring them to be, unhappy and dissatisfied.
This post was and will never be aimed at anyone in particular, but to serve as a reminder to myself just how the beginnings of some things can make or break a person.
Look and think beyond the surface because 'garbage floats on the surface'.