'Mental Social Distancing' is need of the hour, we have a bigger virus amongst us!

"We are there for you", "Be kind, Be nice", "I'm all ears", etc it's all I have been reading all over social media as a reaction to a celebrity committing suicide. 

It's frustrating, annoying and funny that people who have posted such concern and offered help to others to come pour their hearts out to them incase they are going through a tough time are the once who keep doing wrong to people on regular basis. I have seen these horrible souls bitching and manipulating everyone around for personal gain and even worse at times just for fun, at someone else's expense. People have lost jobs and credibility because of these talented manipulators. I would personally think twice before opening my mouth in front of such assholes because you never know what you say will be used against you, at times even things one hasn't said are used against them. 

So when such people come forward and offer help or even worse when they say "depression is real" and preach humanity, it really makes me angry. If depression is real so are the factors causing it; people who can't stop back stabbing and sabotaging each other, people who speak with the sole purpose of manipulating other, people who are the viruses that affect our mental health with just their words are also real. 

And such people are everywhere, these are the ones we refer to when we talk about "work politics". And yes I admit that even I am a part of this mess in someway, whenever I have tried to "Network " I ended up being a part of someone bitching about someone and it's contagious, I often realise after the conversation that 'oops even I have bad mouthed someone'. 

Let's come to 'Networking', it's about discussing important updates in your industry, what are the new developments, any change in the current way of working, etc but no one is interested in talking about all that, everyone wants to talk about people, who is doing what and yes even that is important, you need to know who is getting promoted, who has what equation with whom, because it does affect your business but the thin line between networking and bitching is very blur, we often don't realise when we cross over to talking badly about someone or gossiping. 

Another thing that I have realised that there are very few who would want to talk work and hard core work, in my entire career of 10 years I have hardly found one or two people who were genuinely interested in learning something new and discussing something constructive. Most of them just looked at me as "oh you are way to serious about things".

I know this might be late but I pledge to be more aware  of the talks I have with my peers. I would henceforth not give in into harmful gossips. I would social distance my brain from such harmful conversations. I will do my part, I hope you will do yours.