Hearing Without Listening

If there was really one thing I miss about all my past employment is the fact that you can actually have an intelligent conversation with any of your officemates. I don't mean the high-end, trying-to-be-artsy-fartsy talk...I mean having a friendly chat without anyone trying to out-talk the other person. To some extent, I know that this is due to me being that breath of fresh air...the new guy that everyone wants to share stories with...and eventually dump on. But you can't really call it a conversation if the talk is coming from other people and you aren't really allowed the courtesy of being listened to. Ah well. I guess the good part of it all is that I get to conserve my voice. However, I must admit it to be a difficult chore to sit there and be saturated with info that is either irrelevant to you as a person, useless in terms of your work, or even something you know to be totally false. Okay, the word is not "chore". It is a burden and a very difficult task to sit there and listen to bullshit.