You said somewhere that talking to the receptionist for 5 minutes was an unbearable chore.

it is when you simply can say hi and move on. Do you engage in useless conversations for 5 minutes when every coworker you find till yo go to your desk? I find it surprising you haven't been fired yet.

does it pay the same? really curious now.

maybe I'm falling for the sunk costs fallacy?

right back at you

I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry with that if you live in the US.

would you elaborate?

is this advice applicable to non managers?

About your second paragraph: Don't you find it tiring having 2 personalities?

how optimistic of you:

this only works when the person you share the unit with is not somebody who yells everything that happens through his mind.

Psych? Last time I worked there a gay guy 7 feet tall started blatantly hitting on me. no thanks.

And I chose this job out of desperation. Won't delve into this now.

you write "they" and "finding". They ain't looking for anything, manager told me she is over me, she's not 'helping' anymore and I'm supposed to be looking for a new unit.

You see smiling at the receptionist for five minutes a day as an unacceptable working condition; but you need to understand that part of keeping a job you like includes managing your coworkers.

it's not only smiling, it's giving attention to somebody I dislike that tires me.

I have no problem with work friendship that grow naturally, but they have to grow... naturally. Placing me in a environment with an instruction like 'be friends with these people' doesn't work for me.

You write managing your coworkers, even if I'm a coworker myself and not a manager. Ain't that a manager's job?

about your second paragraph: you're such a good actor. I'm too transparent.

I have myself occasionally had coworkers or other call me rude or condescending, and I’ve never really found a way out from under that when it’s happened.

and people who hear them complain are not mature enough to ask for the other side before jumping to conclusions, you mean...

The managers were not saying you need to be best buds with anyone, just that you need to play along with social dynamics sometimes instead of never.

then we have very different ideas of what is tolerable: to me faking interest is already too much.

I don't mean that all coworkers/extroverted everywhere are like this, because up until I was fired I was unofficially showing the ropes to a younger coworker who, for whatever reason, chose to trust me. I actually enjoyed talking to her because she was also, work oriented and not gossip oriented. She understood that she was there to work and learn.

I'm going to write what goes through my mind when they waste their breath: first I listen to guess if they talk about something I could relate to but most times it doesn't so if there's nothing to do (downtime) I disengage and learn, because I want to be better. When they speak about their stuff, they ignore alarms, patients asking for help and other office jobs and why on earth should I cater to patients when they are like that?

They're better than me and there's so much stuff I could learn from them, because up until my firing I was being trained, but they prefer to talk about... unrelated stuff. It's always me the one who has to inquire about procedures or ECG so they explain something. Most of them are passive.

But this is something management won't see...

I appreciate your post

Reading through the responses, it is blatantly clear that you are autistic

would you elaborate?

When someone else is speaking, do you wait for them to finish speaking before you do?

yes. otherwise I'm being rude. Person A speaks, then Person B speaks. I don't interrupt the person talking to me and don't allow anyone to interrupt me. If they interrupt me or yell I disengage and walk away. Why yelling?

Are you aware of the tone of your own voice?

I don't get what you mean. I talk in a clear, loud, neutral voice looking the person I talk to in the eyes, except when I'm busy. I can express questions and exclamations if you mean that. If I'm in dire need of something I yell to the room.