Divisions

October 14th, 2023

It is a story and a fact as long as the existence of humankind — when people are gathered together in numbers, divisions among them will develop and be clearly visible. Possibly even going longer than just humankind — animals without sentience divide themselves as well — by natural order without any conscious thought. I shouldn't be surprised — but I am, after thinking about the event from a couple of days ago.

There was a group of about 150 people gathered at a work conference. We all know most of each other — by names attached to emails, by phone conversations, by online “Teams” meetings, and by opinions and actions that we become acquainted with while working together. There are four geographical locations for the company I work for in this country, and we know each other by sight only from particular places of our work. The conference was supposed to help us meet and understand each other better by letting us meet each other face to face. And that happened — it was nice to finally see people I deal with daily in the work setting in person rather than just as pixels on the screen. It was nice to actually put a face to a name I knew from emails. It was nice to mix and talk and laugh and to feel like a part of a group and a part of something bigger than just my particular office.

That is until…

Until we gathered for a formal celebratory evening meal. Then the divisions — by geographical location, by particular department, by experience and by number of years worked there, by age and my attitude to ongoing party, by place in the workplace hierarchy (and financial status) — become apparent. Nobody was shunned, but many were slighted. That wasn't pleasant. I didn't care that much about it then, but thinking back — some people seemed hurt by not being accepted as members of a particular group. And I am quite surprised how easy it was for many people to revert from being a big and happy group to being members of a specific group where only same-like people are invented and welcomed. Now I am surprised that I was surprised by a natural and expected phenomenon of sharp divisions that is common whenever a group of people is gathered.