Your working family

Now, I'm not talking about the office romance that usually doesn't work out, I'm talking about the people you spend more waking time with on a daily basis than you do your family.

Most co-workers evolve into a family of sorts. There will be the typical divorced feeling that goes around when a co-worker quits or is terminated. Sometimes, terminations aren't accepted well by some in the family, but hey .... stuff happens. When a door closes, open a window and keep going toward a bigger and brighter family (with a bigger paycheck, you hope.)

Most of the time, however, co-workers grow close and share a lot of themselves with each other. When a new baby is born, it has a lot of aunts and uncles (at work) who have been waiting right along with the "real" family to welcome it into the world.

If the co-worker is dealing with a sickness in their family, they have another working family encouraging them, listening and saying a lot of prayers on their behalf.

When a co-worker dies -- it's the same. A hole is left that will be filled by someone else, because the job must go on, but those who were among the working family at the time of the death, will miss that person for years to come. They will "see" that person everyday -- at the coffee machine, the break room or in the parking lot. The little nesting area where that person worked will have new pictures, new trinkets ... a new smell.

Co-workers who remain together and work together for a common goal -- getting a paycheck and making the company a profit -- really get accustom to being around each other and that's when some really funny things start to happen.

One co-worker realized she was way too comfortable after she walked through the front office adjusting her underwear. She didn't just pull at them, she reached in and gave them a tug before the laughter from her family began.

An involuntary cuss word, a tug on the bra strap, walking barefooted through the office 'cause the old corn hurts, bemoaning the weekend and a few too many, a sleepless night, a really great night, PMS, menopause, mid-life crisis -- these are all common things co-workers share. And sometimes, you get ... TMI. (You have to be young(er) or computer savy to know what that means.

Then there are the times a co-worker is hurting, really hurting, from the life they lead in the real world and you know you can't help a bit.

Sometimes, co-workers are the first to suspect a spouse is cheating, a co-worker is being abused, or financial disaster is tearing a co-worker apart. That's when, in most cases, a line gets drawn. Some things you just don't discuss with a co-worker and some things are just too private and hurtful to share with "strangers."

Most of the time, you really grow fond of the people you work with for years. You may not socialize outside the office, but inside, that person belongs to your "other" family.

Now, if this stuff sounds foreign to someone, it could be because they've been too busy getting ahead in spite of everyone, to notice what is happening and who they are with everyday. And, I guess someplaces are just a job. If that's the case ... a new career is probably in order. "Everything worth doing is worth doing your best." Even when you only get the minimum of wages and no recognition from the boss, you can be assured a co-worker notices.

A co-worker may be the first person to say to you: "Good Morning." "You look nice today." "Did you get a haircut?" "Is that a new shirt?" That co-worker often brings the first laugh of the day.

Yes, co-workers are family -- a limited family and sometimes a pain in the rear -- but good people you sometimes like forever and hope they never see you at your very worse.