Or do I not understand how conversation works?

[Rollonbedtime7pm]

Colleagues A and B chatting right behind me at work, A is buying a car and was talking about how to choose. At an appropriate time in the conversation I turned round and asked what she was looking for and agreed with the pressure of the purchase cos i had had to do the same for our family car. Few more mins of chat then she left.

10 mins later I saw an email on B's screen saying she left the conversation cos "rollon making it all about her was doing my head in"

Am I missing something? Isn't sharing your experience something that normally happens in a conversation? I was agreeing with her!

In this incidence fuck em tbh as am leaving job next week but would hate it if all other people i knew thought I was just a self centred cow!!

Just to add, we do all chat generally so it didn't appear to be a particularly 'private conversation and if it was, don't bloody have it 2 feet away from me!!

It may be they're being nasty but..
I used to work with someone who whatever the conversation was about would always interrupt. It did get quite irritating. Even brief pleasantries with a third party would turn into 5 minute monologue about how they had done something vaguely similar. She wasn't nasty, jst always had to be involved whether it was emailing a client or speaking to a friend. She could get really upset if she felt she was being left out even if it really was nothing to do with her.

She mist have the font on her emails up high to see it accidently. I'm currently next to a colleague and I wouldn't be able to read it unless I tried fairly hard.
Suggest to her she turns the font down next time she wants to bitch about people.

Which is it OP?

"Colleagues A and B chatting right behind me at work, A is buying a car and was talking about how to choose. At an appropriate time in the conversation I turned round"

or

"they were right next to me so I naturally for drawn into the conversation (by them beginning to look at me as they spoke)"

OFGS, our desks run back to back, pretty close to each other and me and B sit by the window. A came and stood leaning on the window sill so was behind if I looked at my screen but next to me if I turned on my chair to move about my desk.

Sorry - should obviously have made sure I didn't move while she was there in case she caught my eye

Hardly the major feature of the post!!

Thank you to all the non picky posters.

Op, do you have form for being arsey as well?

You first post made it sound like you were sat with your back to them and just turned round and joined their converstation.

Then it changed to next to them and making eye contact while they were speaking.

If you can't see the difference in the 2 then maybe they have a point.

Again, its still not ok for them to bitch over email.

That's nice - I was merely trying to clarify.

It was what I thought was a simple question - does use of your own experience in a conversation make you self centred.

I didn't think I would have to justify my seating position or draw a map of the office!

Anyway some posters have given me food for thought so thank you.

There's shaping experiences and there's being a "topper" only you know which you are, but having shared an office with a topper in the past, I can confirm it's very irritating.

I think it depends how it's done rollon. In most cases, I'd say it doesn't make you self-centred: you're trying to connect with the other person. However, oneupmanship is a different kettle of fish. You sound too self-aware to be a topper, to be honest! I'm not sure that kind of person really has much capacity for self-reflection.

Don't forget, some people are just bitchy.