I need to vent since idk how to navigate this. This happened long ago, and I'm scared if this were to happen again since it was a terrible experience.
I just can't stand people who act like this. It's like they tell everyone about their business and get mad at the same time. Very contradicting. I've had friends that behave like this in college but never with grownass adults.
The women is at times... a piece of work. She's nice, but at times, I sense major insecurity. The male colleague is a horn dog and flirts with everything with a pulse. He likes shiny new things and tends to ignore her. I've seen it happen to the previous contractor.
FDS, I just need to know, is this a common occurrence or is this super weird? I've been in the industry for 5 years and that was the first time I've ever experienced this kind of bs. How would you navigate this dynamic?
Whenever they do this shit, I'm like 🙄. My toes are literally curled and my teeth are clenched. I just don't know how to act and either leave the room, or change the subject 😂. Like, they need to be more secretive.
Yep, I had colleagues like this couple. They thought they were being discreet, but it was so painfully obvious. It made all of us uncomfortable.
By coincidence, I was neighbours with the male colleague and I approached him one day and explained all of us were uncomfortable with their behaviour and asked them to tone it down. He got super defensive and said they were just good friends and not a couple.
He then invented a fake girlfriend to throw us off the scent, but it just made it worse. The relationship continued, but both of them ended up leaving the company for different jobs.
I have no issue with consenting relationships at work, but the couple does need to be professional about it and both of them need to go in with their eyes open that if it goes south, it will make work incredibly awkward.
I've known people who date and marry their colleague (office ok-ed romantic relationships in most cases). They don't tend to talk about their relationship in professional setting though. They work normally and meet up for lunch or after work. Never met someone like your colleagues.
I'm a grey rock method advocate lol. Leaving or changing the topic works. I prefer to leave by saying, "Oh, that sounds nice! 🙂 Anyway, I have to go/call/talk/do xyz." Anything that'd take me a while to do. Or give them short non-committal answers if there's no way out. I'd change the topic if I'm not fed up with the person.