Struggling with connecting with my peers but not clients
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Anonymous
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I’m in sales and have amazing relationships with my clients but not so much the other people on my team. We’re cordial but I’m not close friends with them and it’s starting to impact the opportunities I’m getting.
We have some cultural differences, I’m the same age and Christian conservative and went to college in the south and married young (but I hate Trump) and they’re all super left leaning. But I’m committed to making this better even if it means changing my communication style or the way I dress. |
Anonymous
| Do they know you're not MAGA? |
Anonymous
Why do you need to be close friends with your coworkers? How exactly is it impacting opportunities? And how would changing how you dress change anything? Is there a problem with your communication style? In general, trying to change who you genuinely are to please other people is not a healthy strategy, personally or professionally. And if you are doing it to increase sales opportunities, your coworkers will be able to see that from a mile away. Remain kind, respectful, and be a team player. Even with the best of intentions and efforts, if you all as a team can't leave politics and religion at the office door, this may not be the best fit for you in the long term. |
Anonymous
| Find ways to connect. Hobbies, teams, music. Bring food to work. Kudos to you for recognizing it and now you have to take the next step to find things you have in common if its impacting your assignments. Lots of young people are into country, more than when I was growing up. Maybe that's something. |
Anonymous
| You're client focused. They're coworker focused. |
Anonymous
Are they meeting their quotas? Are you out performing them? How are you losing out on deals by not being friends with your co workers? Who generates your leads? You? Marketing? And if marketing, are you saying your not friends with them too and they send the leads to your co workers? |
Anonymous
| Get rid of the obvious cultural trappings that look in your face to people that are not religious. Screen savers, mugs, whatever. |
Anonymous
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Do you even want to be friends with them if they’re “super left leaning”?
Leave the politics out of work. |
Anonymous
Are you 21? How do the know you married young? |
Anonymous
| Small town. I live in the same neighborhood as many of my coworkers, everyone knows everyone |
Anonymous
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Similar situation with me - I’m the liberal one working at a very conservative company. Do great with clients, don’t fit in with coworkers at all.
Honestly, I just chalk it up to a cultural mismatch and that work is for work, not friendships. I’ve also seen how getting too close to coworkers can backfire, drama always happens and I’m very happy to have no part of it. Go to work, put your head down, get your work done. If it’s a promotion you want, meticulously track your numbers so you can give them to your boss. Make friends outside of work. |
Anonymous
| I always thought sales had competitive coworker relations anyways? Isnt someone always getting cut as they raise quotas, so you want to jockey out front? |