Talking to colleagues

[walfin]

How does one start to talk to colleagues?

It feels very awkward.

 

[AlisaD]

Try the neutral basics:
"How are you?"
"How was your weekend?"
"Any plans for the holidays?"
See how they respond, with a bit of luck some of them will show traces of wit or humour, and you can go from there.
If they don't you can try showing some traces of humour or wit and see if anyone responds positively. Try not to whine, complain or depress people at the start even if you don't feel to cheerful.
Try and show genuine interest in their answers, actually, try and develop genuine interest if you really want it to work.
It make take a few days (weeks, months, years) before it feels natural.

 

[walfin]

I don't have days weeks months years anymore.

*sigh*

Never mind. Try harder next time.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Who are your colleagues? What you do, and who they are, might make a difference in the value of the advice you receive.

Dave

 

[dark]

Well if it helps, when I work over the summer on whatever job I can get, this summer was a mechanics job, I would spent about the first 30mins to an hour learning what the person liked, then always open topics on that subject, it really grabs a persons interest to talk about what they like. In truth I am not sure how I found these things out so quick. Like one guy like American muscle cars, so I would mention I didn't necessarily like them, but showed that I respected their view and showed the things I thought were cool about them. Same with another guy that I really talked about anything with.