Workplace cliques

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Hi:
For those of us who are in the workplace, I have seen that anyone who seems to "Fit in socially" seems to mesh well in cliques at work. They not only are very tight knit at work but outside as well. I have seen them ignore my posts on social media while seeming to pay close attention to the posts of people within their clicks or fits their standards. If one who is on the outside wants to join them for lunch it's

"Actually, we colleague X has some personal things to tell me right now, can we do this another time?"

Anyone else experience issues with workplace cliques

Seemed to depend on the type of job... During my education jobs, especially the first one I had, my coworkers seemed to hate me for some reason. But during my scientific jobs I seemed to fit in just fine in that crowd!

Well, there's the clique down in Shipping, another in Accounting, several cliques in Production ...

Cliques happen. People with similar interests and attitudes will gravitate toward each other, and the most charismatic will become their leaders. It's human nature.

I have zero interest in fitting in at work mainly because I don't have a desire to befriend anyone there. They're nice people and I see no need to try to take things further. I say hello and goodbye and I will engage in occasional chit chat that lasts a few minutes tops and then it's back to work for me. I'm a clique of one. I don't feel I'm disturbingly antisocial, but I'm there to work.

Most people at my work aren't really cliquey, except for 4 of them. Well, 3 really, one of them is just part of the group because he's known one of the others in the group since before they started working here. The 4 of them have one thing in common - they love going out to clubs and drinking. They are all between the ages of 22 and 30, and although I fall into that age bracket too, I'm not really that included in the group, probably because I don't like drinking or clubbing. The 'dominant' one of the group once said, "we should go to the waterpark one weekend, just our little group", and I knew he was talking about himself and the 3 others. And I think that is the most cliquest thing I have heard anyone say.

I HATE cliques pretty much anywhere, though I confess I hypocritically wouldn't feel that way if I were part of one. Though I'd like to think I'd at least try to be inclusive of new people if I were in one. I have never been able to deal w/them, not in school, not in grad school, not outside school and definitely not at work (though I have very little job experience). This isn't the same, but grad school does resemble a workplace in some ways and I've never fit into one and I've been in two grad programs. What sucked was trying to make friends w/people you knew you had something in common with, but most of the time they'd be either busy w/their work or research or off w/the clique at department events or even outside in their free time. It's definitely harder to deal w/cliques when you're on the spectrum or, as in my case, there's a significant age difference w/your classmates/cohorts. I'm guessing this is often less of an issue in a normal workplace (the age difference), but it may still come up in regard to some issues.

It also depends on the workplace I'd think. At least sometimes, if you're in an educational or nonprofit environment, that might be less cliquey than at a company, especially a larger one. Good luck dealing w/cliquedom, Summer!