How To Deal With Oversharing/Over-Interested WFH Coworker
I (29F) work from home and I have one coworker who is insistent upon small talk in G chat. We are a small team (4 people). She says Good Morning to us everyday (feels like roll call). She asks about our weekend plans on Fridays, asks how our weekends turned out on Mondays, and she is always wanting to tell us every detail of her plans/what she did. I don't think she has many friends aside from her husband, but I'm just not interested. I find her needy and annoying. I wish I could get this to stop!
We are such a small team that if I ignore her it creates a lot of social discomfort. I've tried everything other than being direct, but I think if I told her, "I appreciate your interest in my personal life, but I prefer to keep my weekend plans and activities separate from our work relationship. 659
I hope you understand," she would be butthurt. If it were a larger company where I didn't have daily/weekly interactions with her (or at least if lots of other people were part of our interactions), it wouldn't feel so uncomfortable. I feel trapped!
As an example of the social discomfort, she tried to get us together for after-work drinks/apps and put me on the spot on a Google Meet about what day might work for me. I threw out a date that Friday morning, she moved forward with getting childcare over the weekend, and she let us know on Monday morning how excited she was for Thursday. I responded to the team right away saying something had come up & I wouldn't be able to make it but that they could invite another department if they wanted to get a bigger crew together. She didn't speak to me for 2 days.
It feels like I either need to just set a boundary and be okay with her thinking I'm a bitch, or I need to keep playing her game to keep the peace. Could use some help seeing other options or perspectives or being validated in one vs. the other!
TLDR; WFH coworker insists on online small talk & since we're on a small team I'm not sure how to get out of it without seeming rude. 659