A very good friend of mine is starting to get me down when we spend time together.
She works in a low paid role, but it's in an industry where everybody starts at the bottom and then progresses significantly in terms of salary in a few years.
We've always enjoyed a good chat about the issues of the day and this includes problems like low pay and how women get treated worse in her workplace compared to men. She's very resentful about how men in her workplace get better pay, better roles etc. I've always taken an interest because I know it's something that she feels strongly about and which makes her upset, as I would with any issue a friend was going through.
But now, it's getting me down. It feels like every time we meet, she starts talking about it yet again. She's started to repeat the same stories over and over again, and I find myself repeating the same answers and asking the same questions because I've run out of things to say. I've heard it all so often that I could give anybody who asked a very detailed explanation of who in her company is in what position, how they got there and what sex they are, and I don't even work there!!
I feel like she knows next to nothing about my work (I recently went self employed, for example), because she never asks! Maybe I should just bring it up more, but the more she speaks about herself and her own issues, the harder it becomes to do it without seeming selfish. I did once tell a tale about how one of my clients was really late paying an invoice, and within a minute or two we were back talking about low pay and menial tasks for women in her industry.
I'm very interested in all of my friends' lives and I want to help them with their problems but I'm just so tired of hearing the same detailed sagas. She's great when she's not talking about this, but I feel like I see that old, fun side of her less and less.