Look, communicating awkwardly doesn’t make you a horrible person. I think part of it is you have a confidence problem. It sounds like you always cowtow to your coworkers’ reactions, even going so far as apologizing when you haven’t objectively done anything wrong (your responses don’t seem that weird, but maybe it is the way you say things). It seems odd to me that anyone would be offended by an offer to go home early, unless you’re making it seem like you specifically don’t want them to be around.

At the end of the day, your coworkers are just people with their own issues and imperfections. They are probably not experts at communication either, so don’t treat them as such. I would not take any social cues from coworker 1.

You may not be able to change the dynamic at work, so my advice is to find a way to socialize outside of work (with people who actually like & respect you!). That way you won’t have to rely on your workplace for those needs.

How is that post borderline insane? It’s a lot of unnecessary detail, but outgrowing your high school mates is a pretty common thing that people sometimes don’t know how to handle.

Don’t go to Facebook first! We need to start normalizing ways to organize outside of those giant corpo-fascist sites.

Especially at work, where you can’t leave and should probably be focusing on the work.

You win, lol. That’s terrible.

My mom used to be a great cook but now she just makes everything in the microwave, often in plastic containers. This year she seemed to forget half the things she was going to cook. We had plans to make beignets and homemade eggnog (we didn’t). For Christmas dinner she made this elaborate meal plan and then changed everything at the last minute. She somehow didn’t think about starting the rice until the chicken was done cooking… then suggested we have nasty precooked pouch rice. For Christmas dinner. It would be different if she didn’t cook much or know how, but cooking is her whole thing! I’m honestly baffled. I’ve decided I’m just going to volunteer to cook the entire dinner next time. I’ve been a professional cook before. I can make something fancy, even if I’m the only one who will appreciate it.

If it chipped, then it is likely some kind of vinyl or composite made to look like wood. Nowadays the fake wood looks realistic enough to fool people! But real wood doesn’t chip like that.

I’m surrounded by pine trees, blackberry bushes, and ivy. Christmas looks pretty green to me!

I know unfinished business doesn’t necessarily mean business in the economic sense, but it’s still funny we call it that. Like even ghosts can’t escape capitalism.

I hate to break it to you but almost every major corporation has a person whose entire job is to translate corporate copy into easy-to-parse, casual, friendly “conversation,” because they do want you to think of the brand as your trusted friend. They’re trying to manipulate us at every level, every interaction.

Ok doc, what do you suggest? I’m 40 and somehow my 80 year old mother has better mobility than I do. I can’t even tell you why I have pain, there is no injury. Doctors can’t tell me why. I’ve tried everything short of opioids and back surgery, and I know those aren’t going to help either. What the hell do you do when your body just doesn’t react normally to exercise, stretching, physical therapy, etc?? It’s not that I want to accept that this is my life now, but there don’t seem to be any other options. Just be glad this isn’t happening to you, I guess.

Wikipedia lists Real Clear Politics as having become more conservative and right leaning in recent years. Their polls may not be as accurate.

I guess I don’t understand this “professional career oriented program.” Is it like a grad school? Is there a good chance all or some of you will end up working with each other at the same employer later? There should be lots of other places to find a partner. You must have some kind of social life outside of this program, right?

Dating is hard, but breaking up in a mutual way where both people can still respect each other is even harder. Imagine the drama there will be after you’ve dated a few people from this group. People in the program may take you less seriously because they think you’re just there to find dates. But this is your career. Shouldn’t you take it seriously?

If you really want to date someone there, you can, if you’re smart about it (and make sure it’s worth the risk, not just for any passing crush). But don’t try to manipulate the whole group in order to do that. Don’t use the chats to try to get close to someone. Do any non-professional stuff outside of the program, away from the others. Don’t bring your relationship drama into the program, especially if the relationship ends. Think of all these rules as practice for how you will need to act professionally in your future career. That’s what this program is for, isn’t it?

I want to be friends and stay professional overall, while tapping into potential with the guy I like

These things are not really compatible. The sooner you learn that, you will have a lot less workplace drama. Your professional workplace should not be a dating pool. There is no reason to exclude the other women. Who cares if one of them lied? Are you the moral police? Just chill, and let people do what they want. You don’t need to control the situation.

And I would disagree with OP’s definition entirely. What they describe sounds more like reputation or social standing, not honor.

The first four are remakes, but they’re done very well.

Tokyo Vice

Shogun (not exactly a crime thriller but it will suck you in)

Ripley (shot like a black and white film from the 40’s, good even if you’ve seen the Matt Damon movie)

Perry Mason

Yellowjackets

Altered Carbon

Big Little Lies

Nine Perfect Strangers

Dark Winds

If you like crime comedy, try White Lotus, Dead to Me, Search Party, Only Murders in the Building, Flight Attendant, and The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.

I doubt any place will hire you for only one day a week. That will not be helpful for them.

So if I walked into a restaurant that specialized in a certain cuisine (choosing the right one out of hundreds is a skill, right?) and wrote down a list of ingredients, and the restaurant made me a meal with those ingredients according to however the restaurant functions (nobody can see into the kitchen, after all), does this make me a chef?

It’s insufferable that the answer is always “build your own.” Lemmy assumes that every single person on the planet is an engineer with enough free time to design, build, and troubleshoot every device they own.

But what about a car? Cars are as smart as smartphones now, and you certainly wouldn’t notice the small amount of power needed to collect and transfer data compared to driving the car. Some car manufacturer TOS agreements seemingly admit that they collect and use your in-car conversations (including any passengers, which they claim is your duty to inform them they are being recorded). Almost all the manufacturers are equally bad for privacy and data collection.

Mozilla details what data each car collects here.

If they know how many years they’ll hold the rights, that information should be given to the consumer, i.e., “you will have access to this media product for at least N years.” Then the consumer can make an informed decision (is $24.99 worth it to own a movie for 6 years? Etc). Otherwise it’s just a gamble. Everything else you can rent (cars, tools, equipment, venues, clothing, dumpsters) comes with very clear temporal terms. Imagine if rental car companies could remotely brick your rental car halfway through your vacation.