Maybe you actually aren't the favorite in the office
My best friend at work just told me a hilarious story about her office. They recently moved into a new space. “New” is used in a literal sense: it is technically, in fact, a different collection of atoms and matter, at a different longitude and latitude. But it’s the same ol’ cube farm and gray walls. Surrounding the cube farm are a small number of offices with doors. Their leadership, obviously, got one, but then left it up to the staff to democratically decide who would get the one unclaimed office. Uniformly, the staff elected Jim (not an actual name, one selected for this story). The boss was thrilled by the team’s consensus and kindness to Jim. The boss assumed everyone must love Jim.
The truth is, the staff chose Jim because they didn’t want him in the cube farm anymore. Jim is disruptive or, at times, outright rude. The office was a way of getting rid of Jim. It made me wonder what other achievements at work or gifts from your colleagues that seemed like wins weren’t really wins. Maybe you actually aren’t the favorite in the office; maybe there is an ulterior motive.
Then again, if Jim never finds out, who cares? He’ll feel loved, management can delude itself that everyone loves Jim, and the team gets what it wants. Everyone wins.
As a quick aside, all of this reminded me of the time in my career when I got the “honor” of one of the offices. I remember immediately realizing it was social Siberia. I missed all of the small talk in the cube farm, and it created a barrier between me and my colleagues. They had to ask if they could bother me, even though I was always up for bothering. I couldn’t get out of that office fast enough. As someone that talks too much, it was probably good for my productivity. But it was hell for my morale.