"The way you do anything is the way you do everything."

That's one of my all-time favourite quotes. Some quotes are just mantric right out of the gate. Tom Waits said it in an interview I read years ago, but he was quoting someone else so I'm S.O.L. when it comes to properly attributing credit on this one. Tom can have it.

It's particularly pertinent this week. (To keep myself dooce-proof, I'm always gonna be vague about work-related stuff here. It's good to use your imagination once in a while.) I'm sorry to say I've had my first real experience of bitchy-ness in the U.S. workplace. American friends warned me about this before I moved here but I didn't want to believe it until I was on the receiving end.

In a dark damp nutshell, several colleagues made negative comments about me to my boss behind my back yesterday. I won't pretend that I haven't done anything to give them cause for concern, but they are making bad assumptions because they don't have all the information and they won't approach me to get more. I have on occasion been told that I can be too direct, but it occurs to me that life would be much simpler if everyone would just be straight with one another.

I know, I know... they're just my colleagues. It's only my job. But they could have been friends. I mourn that potential. It could all turn around in time, but I reserve the right to be doubtful because (altogether now) the way you do anything is the way you do everything.

On the flip side, I discovered I have a handful of awesomely loyal colleagues when they totally got my back and let me know what had happened. Every cloud, right?