Jekyll-Hyde Why?

'Sat in on a company dinner last night, at a round table with several of the top honchos and honchettes and their spouses. A formal affair, $250-a-pop charity fundraiser - leftover ticket from a last-minute sickout, hence The Cube's invitation. Enjoyable. The food was good. (Good!) and the charity made sense. The company was pleasant.

Ah, there's the curiosity: the company was pleasant.

Which leads to the question: why so unpleasant so often in the daylight hours?

What is it about the four walls and offices and atmosphere of the enterprise of business that, on the job, these same people have to shed good nature and behave in conflict-guaranteeing manner?

Let's eliminate Drink as the false front of the camaraderie last night: pale wine in teaspoon servings does not a convivial drunk make. And they weren't jolly jolly, either, just decent people behaving in a friendly, enjoyable manner. The exact opposite, sometimes, of their daily demeanors, when pissant power plays and simple sourpuss grimaces mark their mugs and maneuvers

'Used to watching workers sour-shift their ways through the days - odd to see the same thing at the upper levels. It's as if home life has rules of decency and goodness while the business world is designated wilderness with all its savage implications. 'Wonder why?