[notpc]

It's not really. Coworkers engaging in banter is friendship. But yes, there's no doubt that friendships between coworkers affect how things get done. That's just the human condition. If you want to change that, you'd have to run your office like a Stalinist dictatorship, and that would be terrible for getting things done. Which is, you know, the whole purpose of a team.

[anthony_romeo]

The situation is different, in that you don't necessarily have the right to choose your coworkers or teammates as you would your friends.

And no, I'm not promoting a Stalinist regime by suggesting that people be considerate of the feelings of others.

As an aside, and probably why I replied in the first place, is that I feel people are just too extreme nowadays. Everything is offensive to everybody, including getting offended of others being offended. People can't swear freely without eventually offending somebody, but people can't object to offense without being belittled. The extreme component of this is that nobody has chosen to pick their battles, instead further entrenching themselves in an ideology of moot points rather than a focus towards conflict resolution. I feel many of the comments in here are representative of this.

I'm hopeful that people realize that there's a middle ground to all of this, but folks on both sides don't seem to care.

Sorry for my rant.