Your co-worker ranking

I'm not saying anyone does this consciously, but I'm pretty sure everyone I work with has a roughly drawn co-worker ranking algorithm humming along at the edge of their subconscious. I'm not talking so much about who they think is a good or bad worker, rather more what their sense of alliance, collegiality, and friendship with their various co-workers is. It's really just a secret list of who their favorite co-workers are.

I'm not saying this applies to me. All my co-workers are my favorite co-workers, except for the horrible ones, but I often see these lists at work from the other end. I know that if co-worker A is here then co-worker B will not really be saying much of anything to me other than maybe a friendly greeting, but take co-worker A out of the equation and co-worker B might stop by for a chat.

Recently it was pretty quiet at the library and I was on the phones when one of my co-workers came over. He was very chatty! We gabbed along in our uneven way. He can be a little adversarial with me but this quality was toned down pretty strongly. There was less of the spiky comedy too and more chat about life and filling each other in on future plans. It was a moderately pleasant enough five or ten minutes, and when it was over I looked around.

Co-workers D and E and F and G were all gone. 

Well, that made sense. I'd have guessed I was about fifth on that co-worker's list at best. I didn't take it personally. Like I said, I don't have my own list, but I do like to keep track of where I am on everyone else's.