As per the title, I'm struggling with the lack of sincerity/kindness in my place of work. I'm no spring chicken and have never thought of myself as being a softie. Definitely don't think I'm naive. But recently I just can't seem to stomach the politics/sniping.
I sit in a staffroom on breaks, where everyone seemingly gets on well, has a laugh etc. But at other times I've heard almost every person be really quite unpleasant and mean about other people in there, so all the chit chat seems massively false? I'm probably quite a neutral person in that I'm not in any of the closer friendship groups, which can be a bit lonely, but it also seems to mean that people seem comfortable about bitching about others to me. I try just to be non committal and steer the conversation away. But I've heard some really derogatory stuff being said.
Also if someone is off for example, and we're told oh Susan has x illness, I just immediately think oh that's rotten poor Sarah. But everyone else starts eye rolling and doubting them.
I don't know if it's become more like this recently or if I'm just getting old but I feel i can't stomach it! It makes me feel everyone is insincere and two faced. The management team are similar, and I feel I wouldn't feel comfortable going to them, as any issues would be discussed in a similar fashion.
I know everyone likes a moan about their colleagues, but it is making me feel more and more unsettled.
Do I just need to accept that this is how people are?
On the surface everyone would say oh we're a tight knit team, management doors are always open etc, we're all so friendly...but it's so false!