Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't think thats necessarily an ABQ thing. I work in DC and people in my office generally aren't comfortable talking politics. I think this is something that has happened nationwide in the past few years as our politics has become more polarizing.
Think this is very true, I am more reluctant to discuss politics with people as it is very polarizing. I know people I like and get along with but if we started on politics or religion things would go downhill. I have friends in Abq. and have found them very open to intellectual discussions on politics etc. but we are on the same wave length so okay to open those doors. I have discovered some people just aren't as interested as I am in those subjects...oh well.
This is an old thread but interesting as Abq. Is on the radar for moving. Someone mentioned a lack of good salad and greens, several hundred posts back, is that still true? As a vegetarian I am very spoiled as the Asheville area is vegetarian heaven but not much for spicey and I love, love green chiles and NM food. Also the bread issue, even here bread is so so I would kill for good Pumpernickel or Rye. If you have lived in big cities NE or not gonna be things you miss there are trade offs.
Someone mentioned a lack of good salad and greens, several hundred posts back, is that still true? As a vegetarian I am very spoiled as the Asheville area is vegetarian heaven but not much for spicey and I love, love green chiles and NM food. Also the bread issue, even here bread is so so I would kill for good Pumpernickel or Rye. If you have lived in big cities NE or not gonna be things you miss there are trade offs.
It depends where you shop. A few greenhouses aside, you won't see much fresh local produce until late April or early May, but once the season gets rolling the (many) grower's markets are full of plenty of good local fare including abundant greens. We also, of course, get plenty of organic produce from California and elsewhere on the West Coast at the local co-op or at Whole Foods. Albuquerque is in a desert experiencing its fifth straight year of drought - that said, there are certainly plenty of options and it's easy to gorge on locally-grown veggies from at least May-November.
As for bread, there are some good bakeries out there, including Sage Bakehouse, Rio Grande Baking, Fano, and others. Pumpernickel and rye aren't really our thing, but the Jewish deli in Nob Hill bakes their own so you might be in luck there too.
Thanks for the info. Grew up in the midwest so those darker breads are like home. I must say I don't think of NM and a bread place more Tortillas and Fry bread but I'm pretty ignorant on that subject. Guess Sauerkraut is not a big seller either Funny what we grow up eating really sticks with us.
Although I lived most of my working life on the east coast, I don't recognize the world you say you are missing here.
It may be specific to my former workplace. I only really had one job before that and it was just my boss and myself most of the time, so a different social environment. I don't remember what we talked about.
Quote:
How many non-work related discussions do you think are appropriate at the workplace? Other than pleasantries, "how was your weekend?" and polite conversation like that, why do you feel the workplace should be a battleground of opinions?
How would you feel if someone felt the same way about another "cultural" topic, namely religion. In other words, substitute the word "religion" for "politics." How would you feel then? If you are open minded, you should not have any problem with that, right?
The workplace is for work; it isn't a debating society. Sure, you want to have good relationships with co-workers, and maybe even have social relationships with some of them outside of the workplace. But be careful what you wish for in the workplace...
My workplace is full of constant conversations, often ones that go on for an hour or longer. It fundamentally doesn't matter what I think is an appropriate amount of conversation in the workplace: it's there already, in spades.
What I have had to deal with is lots of excessively personal questions from people who don't know me well enough to be asking them. Or I've had to hear things about people's personal life that I didn't want to hear, or graphic accounts of their children's intestinal problems that I didn't want to hear. Etc. It's gotten a lot better since I'm no longer working in an open office area, and there have been some changes in management in the areas that still have an open office plan, so it's a little less hyper-social than it had been. But there are still individuals who spend a lot of time in (non work related) conversation.
Yes, this probably boils down to differences in what is considered appropriate. I miss the type of conversations I had (at least some of the time, not constantly) in my previous workplace. I essentially have no life outside of work, due to continuing health issues, so I miss that connection.
To go back to my previous workplace: in that case it was more a matter of one or one conversations with people I had gotten to know a little. Often this was in hallways or break areas, but basically away from where work was being done, though I wouldn't say it was never the latter. And it was more likely to occur when there weren't as many people around, so there would be less chance of a controversial subject leading to conflict.
I've worked around people with diverse political and religious beliefs and I think I have a pretty good idea when to shut up, when not to even start conversations on these subjects. The irony is, I think I was much more reticent about initiating the type of conversations I now miss than my previous co-workers were. I know it sounds like I'm some guy who goes around trying to start debates at work all day long. That's far from the truth. Though I do enjoy debate, obviously. If anything I'm much quieter than most of the people I work with, but that's partly because I'm not interested in the kind of conversations they want to have.
Even beyond politics, I just don't find people who are interested in the specific foreign cultural things that interest me, especially the music I'm interested in. It's definitely a contrast with my former workplace (which was not an institution specifically focused on politics or music).
I never said anything about being open minded and I would not apply that label to myself. That's really something for others to judge, and I wouldn't say I even make it a goal. It would be dishonest to pretend that most of us, at the very least, don't operate within some sort of framework of givens.
Anyway, I will stop complaining about it on this thread, which seems to almost be an annual ritual for me now.
Last edited by ApartmentNomad; 04-16-2015 at 11:15 PM..
I guess I lied a little about not complaining any further, since I'm going to add a follow-up here. I just want to clarify one point.
What I'm describing here is based partly on instances when other people in my current workplace have brought up something in the news and I've raised questions about, oh, for instance, the truth of a certain government recounting of an event that had gone through multiple contradictory versions in a short period of time; or when I've stated that I see media emphasis on a certain story as part of an ongoing attempt to vilify a particular country or leader; only to have the other person show absolutely no interest in the possibility of looking at the news critically. (I hope that syntax made sense!) It's as if these subjects, sometimes very important ones, are simply used as counters for small talk, not as starting points subject to questioning.
I'm not saying this is the only form discussion of current events ever takes in my workplace, but it's quite common.
Another thing that puzzles me is that my co-workers seem much more invested in partisan politics at the national level than my previous co-workers in Philadelphia, which is odd considering how utterly partisan Philadelphia local politics tends to be compared to Albuquerque local politics. (Philadelphia hasn't had a Republican mayor since the 1950's or something of that sort.) Ideological consistency is one thing, but always giving a pass to your team (party) is another.
My take on discussing politics vs. religion: almost all of us will acknowledge that we are immersed in a political world, whether we pay attention to it or not. (The only exception I can think of would be someone who genuinely thinks mundane reality is completely illusory, but even those people tend to adopt some sort of idea of levels of reality, relativity degrees of reality, etc.) The existence of political realities is a given, though opinions may vary about what to do about them, or there may even be debate over facts. But there are political realities we all share and know that we share, nevertheless. But the facts that religions claim, the deities or cosmic laws or whatever it might be, are not something we all acknowledge or see. Political institutions indisputably exist. Social structures indisputably exist. There may be a God, but if there is, it's not a reality we all recognize, not unavoidable like tax forms, the police force, the job market, etc. So that's why I see politics as something everyone does to some extent, while religion is not. I also have an old fashioned idea that education should partly be about preparing people to be citizens.
Of course, religion and politics are similar in their potential to be very divisive. And having someone try to change your political views can feel like religious proselytizing, so one has to be careful.
Incidentally, we did also used to talk about religion in my old workplace, sometimes debating religious claims (which could get overheated) and sometimes having cooler discussions, maybe just comparing the doctrines of different churches, or discussing the historical development of certain religions or denominations, etc. (This is not imaginary. I really did have that type of conversation with some of my co-workers, but as I've said, it was a cultural institution. I'm being intentionally vague.)
Maybe you can find another venue to discuss those things rather than in a professional setting.
See my comments above about the extent to which my workplace is full of conversation, some of it ridiculously personal.
At any rate, I can't find another venue for those things since my life is ****ed thanks to health issues. My life is ****ed. Period.
Are you sorry you never had any chidren? I'm dating this guy and I was looking up how much money he makes online. . . How about those Lobos?
Last edited by ApartmentNomad; 04-17-2015 at 01:49 PM..
See my comments above about the extent to which my workplace is full of conversation, some of it ridiculously personal.
At any rate, I can't find another venue for those things since my life is ****ed thanks to health issues. My life is ****ed. Period.
Are you sorry you never had any chidren? I'm dating this guy and I was looking up how much money he makes online. . . How about those Lobos?
Why do so many people here think it's okay to knock on people's doors before noon on a weekend? The only people who do that back east are Jehovah's Witnesses and maybe some delivery people. Too many morning people for me, I guess.
This is an old post, but it's just not the kind of environment where I could do that a lot of the time. Sometimes we have to be available for customer service. Anyway, I am not in that hyper-social area any more.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Funny what we grow up eating really sticks with us.
