Thought I had real friends at Dell, until I left. Six months of nothing but silence, and in the last few weeks, suddenly everybody's blowing up my phone for job leads. Do you guys really think you'll get a positive response if you treat somebody as just a contact when you need something?
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"that humans have turned pretty shifty in the past 20 years."
No. humans were always shifty and probably moreso in yesteryear.
You just see it more with the advent of 24/7 camera and social media access.
Overall, I agree with the sentiment that work is work, friends are friends and the two are usually separate. But there is no denying -- based on some of the di-khead replies in this thread -- that humans have turned pretty shifty in the past 20 years.
No such thing as work friends anymore. Everyone is out for themselves and will throw you under the bus the first chance they get. When you leave, no matter how many years you were at the company, it is like you never existed.
You know communication works both ways right? If you haven't heard from them, they haven't heard from you.
Boo f’ing who - somebody call the wambulance!
remember that guy what was his name? Greg no Gary oh well he is gone who cares.
friendships need to be organic.
co workers are one of the most inorganic relationships that probably exists. a group of people are paid to coexist alongside each other with rules and guidelines on behaviour.
just as I dont think i am friends with my landscaper, mechanic, etc. i dont know why people think they are friends with co-workers.
This post feels out of place for this forum. If you’re looking for emotional support over work friendships, this probably isn’t the right platform. This isn’t Dear Abby.
I had someone i thought was my friend gaslight me about their compensation for a deal they were about to win... I was like dude I used to do that same job a few months ago. I know they dont pay out that much... I asked a friend, why would they lie about that? They said cause they felt jealous of your new j9b I guess...
Then I stopped reaching out to my old dell friends and then realized they were never reaching out to me. Work colleagues are just not your friends. Best to remember that. I uave had 2 or 3 total in my 40 years of life transcend from colleague to friends and its very rare.
I learned about the reality of work friends a couple of decades back after a layoff.
emails and phone calls aren’t returned or if they are, they’re very short.
I have been at EMC/Dell for sometime and actively avoid socializing with coworkers outside of the office, unless it’s a company event. There are a couple of exceptions. One person who left the company a couple of years back and I are still in touch on a regular basis and get together once or twice a month for breakfast or lunch. We even wrote a book together. But we probably would have been friends if we had met under other circumstances as we have much more interests in common than just Dell.
I volunteered 2 years ago for layoff. Started at EMC 1993. Give your old work friends some grace. People are are scared and often have short memories when times get tough. Take the high road you'll be better for it. Stay in touch with the prople worth it.
The same happened to me, still in contact with 3-4 friends from Dell. The other hundreds who I knew very well and worked with for decades, not a word.
It's the world we live in. Use them when you need a change. Work friends generally aren't real friends. If work "friends" are your social circle, branch out