Why do people interfere?

Why do people interfere in things which are none of their business? And why, when they do so, do they not establish the facts before butting in?

I am dealing with a particularly difficult issue at work at the moment with a member of staff and a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to a position where we now both feel comfortable and have a solution we can live with even if we don’t really like it. Someone else has now taken it upon themselves, based upon gossip, rumour and half truths, to butt in and question what is going on and to be frank, it is really p*****g me off! And I have to deal with such people courteously and politely because I have to live and work with them in the future, whereas what I’d really like to do is tell them to go away and never come back (in a caring way, obviously).

It is always a mistake, of course, to get embroiled in a detailed ping pong of e-mails about anything, let alone anything sensitive. I am now going to have to spend precious time and effort, which would be better spent on other things, dealing with this subsidiary issue and settling it down so that I can simply get on with my day job.

I don’t know how people have time to stick their noses into things which are no concern of theirs. Do they think they are being supportive? Do they think they are helping? Do they have a personal agenda to pursue? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. All I do know is it’s a bloody nuisance and just makes things more difficult.

Personally, I don’t have time. I have a busy job, a busy home life and a complicated family with whom I have to deal because I’m stuck with them, a hobby which I choose to do but which takes up a considerable amount of my leisure time, and ambitions which I wish to chase for the future (believe it or not, I don’t want to be a local government officer for the rest of my life). I just don’t have time to involve myself in other people’s problems. For good friends I would of course give a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen, but as for active involvement – no way unless it’s a matter of life and death and certainly not for a work colleague.

Things would be a lot simpler if we all minded our own business. There used to be an old nursery rhyme about it, and for the moment the exact words are eluding me, but its implication was that if you stick your nose into things that concern you don’t expect anything good to come of it. How true- and how I wish more people would take note of it.

So today, I am off to a meeting during time I don’t have to spare, with someone I should not have to be dealing with, on an issue which is nothing to do with them to try and calm things down so that we can all get some work done. It’s such a waste of time and my life! I don’t want to do it, and I will no doubt be grumpy throughout which will give them something else to complain about. So I must make an effort and smile, and act as though their piddling concerns are the most important thing in my life right now.

Hey ho, here we go! Wish me luck!!