Unfortunately this is everywhere. I work as a welder at a large shipyard, and we have the same drama.

We have a female welder who steals tools and personal items from others, then cries “Christian persecution” when she experiences any consequences for her actions. Shockingly, it works and she’s never punished or arrested. They do make her give the items back, so that’s something.

We have the MAGA crazies who vandalize company property with their dumb political / sexist / racist / homophobic crap. They just recently vandalized & destroyed one of the few female bathrooms with a sledgehammer. Shipyard police are still “*looking into it.” I now have to either use a gross porta-potty or walk a mile to use a real bathroom.

We have a ton of anti-vaxxers who believe some of the most batshit crazy things. Though, the more hard-core ones were fired some time ago. The ones who complied and wore a mask got to stay.

This is just human nature. This is what you get when you have two or more people together at one place.

That’s not workplace drama, you’ve described interacting with people. It’s difficult to say if it’s always been like this but social media hasn’t helped. People are now used to expressing their beliefs and opinions to everybody, no matter how polarizing or unpopular they might be. It’s not limited to the workplace.

For not caring about what people think, just remember that nobody’s opinion matters. Your favourite colour is yellow? Cool. You don’t like Taylor Swift? Great. You think all atheists should be killed? Neat. Opinions are like points on Whose Line Is It Anyway. They’re made up and they don’t matter.

I was about to say yes but i forgot my boss threw a chair at another employee after a cocaine bender

The only times I’ve ever had a drama free workplace was:

1. At the beginning of my career when I was an intern. They didn’t care enough about me to include me in the gossip, and I was only going to be there for a few months anyway.
2. When my last job started letting us work from home, so I was no longer stuck at a desk in a high traffic area where multiple people would stop and chat. Headphones with a mic were a godsend, because when someone would start to approach, I’d just smile and point at the mic. Kept a lot of the gossipers at bay, though not all. WFH eliminated all that, I was so happy I could finally just focus on my work and not get caught up in situations that didn’t even pertain to me.

Don’t engage in social conversations at work, beyond brief small talk to be polite. Weather, sports, or traffic. Imagine that HR is listening in on every word you say. You can’t be roped into drama if you don’t give them an opening.

I’ve only once had a coworker who tried to cross that boundary, and I said very plainly “Let’s keep our conversations professional.” and she never caused problems again.

As someone said before it’s not directly a consequence of a workplace, it’s a part of interracting with a random selection of people from wildly different backgrounds.

Nod your head as if you weakly agree. Throw in a random opinion of your own, but I don’t recommend the extreme ones. Questions also work especially when they are seemingly neutral and cause doubt in the original speaker.

For example if a Christian nationalist starts hating on Mexicans don’t fall into the trap of repeating typical responses about respect for immigrants. Ask him how he reconciles that with the fact that Mexicans are predominantly Christians. Or something unexpected like that.

If “politics is what happens when 3 or more people must make a decision”, drama will always follow. While there are careers that have less drama, there is no such thing as one without it. My suggestion: find allies. Not in an oppositional way, but in a way that they support you and your work. Think if someone were to call you an asshole in front of everyone else, your ally would stand up and say “no they aren’t”. If you work at a place where there is no such person, it is apathetic at best, and toxic at worst.

As a student: No. lol

Like many others have said here, it simply is unavoidable. People are gonna people, and a number of them usually do it to illicit some reaction, whether it’s agreement which reinforces their nonsense, or ragebaiting that gives them a giggle and still reinforces their nonsense. Realistically the only thing you can do is ignore them and get on with your day.

I think the biggest thing to remember is that a lot of people have very little social interaction outside of their home lives and work. They spend their time either at home with family or even alone, loading their brains with whatever garbage they find on the Internet, and then spew it back into the world to see what sticks. In many people’s minds, you are simply the one in front of them at the moment when they want to spout off. It seems like you’re taking it personally, when in reality a lot of these yoyos are too shortsighted to even consider you as a person. You are an NPC to their main character.

What helps is remembering that usually none of what anyone says is personally targeted. And even if it is, what does it matter in the grand scheme of things? Half the population has double digit IQs (not that that’s a great metric to go on, but still). Just keep doing your thing, stay focused on your work, and don’t let morons live rent free in your head. I know it may sounds difficult, but it really is as easy as just paying no mind to them.

Ever heard the phrase “Life on life’s terms”?

Unless you’re willing and able to create your own company and control who you employ, you’re goign to be dealing with people.

I have been very lucky so far, and have had very little exposure to drama in general.

Ugh, I know exactly what you mean! I hope to become better at simply being frank and setting boundaries. Seriously, I just met you and you tell me your mom just died? OK, that is terrible, of course, but what the actual fuck, I’d almost go so far as to call that borderline abusive.

Then the guy next to me at this one job I had. Complaining the whole day. Every day. And you know what? I think it’s my fault. I just let people like that use me as an emotional trashbin. If I were there now I’d definitely do something about it.

It’s incredibly hard to overcome that behavior. I can recommend martial arts, since it allows you to process these behaviors and related emotions physically. Sounds a bit silly but my god you know exactly where your thresholds are and not to hesitate to hold your stand and how you’re gonna do it.

You can’t get rid of that one toxic person. They’ll always be there in every group. The stoics wrote about it thousands of years ago, that it is our fate and we can only learn to handle it.