Most people expect a little bit of small talk at work, maybe a quick vent about a bad date, a stressful situation, or the general chaos of everyday life. Offices are social places, after all, and chatting with coworkers is often part of what makes the workday feel a little less like a grind. A quick “Can you believe what happened yesterday?” here and there can make the hours go by faster. But as anyone who has ever shared a desk area knows, there’s a big difference between occasional venting and becoming someone’s full-time emotional support coworker.
Sometimes, what starts as casual small talk slowly evolves into something much more… consistent. One minute you’re nodding politely while someone tells you about an argument with their partner, and the next thing you know you’re getting daily updates about every twist in a relationship you didn’t even know existed two weeks ago. Suddenly you know the names of people you’ve never met, the details of arguments you were never involved in, and the exact timeline of a breakup that somehow never ends.



