I blame it on your obvious ways...

Office life. I find it strange how it encapsulates, for me, the best and worst of human society and interaction. And I think my office is reasonably representative of an average humdrum office.

Worst because everything is so...worn-out. Every day, the same clichés, the same little unfunny jokes, everybody reacting to each other in a pre-programmed way and never really thinking about each other. Best friendships are not often formed with work colleagues.

Best because despite that, it works. People get along, people have a laugh, people know enough about each other as they need to know but not so much that they couldn’t bear to be around each other any more. You know that this isn’t a group of people who would choose to be friends if they hadn’t met for any other reason, and yet there is sufficient camaraderie and good humour that everybody gets along despite their differences.

But ‘tis humdrum withal. Nothing changes, even with our staff turnover as high as it is. We may occasionally talk about news and current affairs but never in earnest, never really interested or wanting to change others’ opinions. There is little to make one day different from the one before.

What I find really depressing is that I get the impression that most people’s lives work like that out of work too – they never think, and would be puzzled as to why you’d really want to. Thank goodness for books, and for the fact that I can choose my friends to be crazy and original people who make me think and keep life varied.