• rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1972·
    20 hours ago

    Pick a coworker you don’t hate.

    Ask if they want to join you for lunch.

    If they agree, invite them again. Re-invite until it’s expected. Have them bring coworkers they don’t hate, or more likely they’ll bring people to you. All of a sudden, you have a friend group.

    Now, start talking about workplace grievances. When your friend group is agitated to the point of mobilizing, you have yourself a union organizing committee

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      16·
      17 hours ago

      Though if you do this, be careful not to shit talk about other coworkers or management because you never know when someone will turn on you to get ahead in their career. Or if you must complain about work stuff, at least try to keep it to things you’d be ok with the other parties hearing about. Which is a decent rule of thumb in general.

    • Pixel_Jock_17@piefed.caEnglish
      21·
      18 hours ago

      I did this once. It worked well, still talk to most of those people from time to time since ive left that job.

      My issue was the near daily expectation of going out for lunch. Like who’s made of money like that? Not going for lunch allows me to save like $100 a week now.

      • Markus29@lemmy.todayEnglish
        4·
        16 hours ago

        This may be a local thing but grabbing something you can eat on the move and taking a walk with your coworkers is a good alternative to eating out every time.

        • Pixel_Jock_17@piefed.caEnglish
          1·
          15 hours ago

          Sounds like some downtown urbanized thing. I moved to the suburbs in Ontario and you have to drive.

          You are right though, some areas this could work but it still would he close yo $20 a day

        • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
          1·
          15 hours ago

          That’s fine once in a while, but in general, please do try to sit down somewhere and eat without distractions if you can, especially if you already have weight issues. You will feel satiated sooner and are not as prone to overeating.

    • architect@thelemmy.club
      153·
      19 hours ago

      Nah that’s just work friends. Those aren’t real friends. You will lose them when you change jobs.

      Go to the same place every day. Become a part of the scenery. Eventually people will approach you because you are familiar. Invite them to take a seat. Friends.

      • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        10·
        18 hours ago

        Work friends become real friends once you turn the work-friend group into an organizing committee. I still have dozens of friends from my previous job, because we were organizing together

        • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
          5·
          18 hours ago

          Man, I just remembered to text the folks who went out for beers after work when I found a new job, and we’re still friends and have all mostly quit drinking.

      • protist@retrofed.comEnglish
        7·
        18 hours ago

        Oh man, I have many life-long friends from previous jobs. Whether this happens to you totally depends on where you work and the culture there, as well as how open you are and how often you reach out to people to organize stuff

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
        4·
        16 hours ago

        Nah, I have made real friends at work. If I leave my current job, I will absolutely keep in touch with my coworker. We are fully remote, but I will make him game with me if we stop working together. He’s too chill for me to lose touch with.

        Other people at work I considered friends I did eventually lose touch with, but I went to one of their weddings, and had a great time caught up with a lot of my old coworkers.

        I agree, coworkers aren’t always friends, but you spend a good chunk of your life there. If you don’t make friends with some of them, you’re losing out and making things more difficult for yourself.

        Nobody is expected to make work friends, but if you don’t t least have one or two, you’ll be more miserable at work.

      • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
        3·
        18 hours ago

        I made lots of permanent friends at one of my jobs, but I didn’t have a long commute or anything, we live 20 minutes apart only because they had a commute

    • yucandu@lemmy.world
      9·
      19 hours ago

      I tried this but then the friend group all agreed that I was a piece of shit and kicked me out.