Whose Line Is It Anyway?

I'm finding a challenging part of finding my feet in this new job is making friends with my co-workers and finding out exactly where that line for them sits. Testing the limits of their humour is proving to be this bizarre mental dance I have to go through everyday where the consequences of standing on their feet can be serious.

Normally when you start a new job you'd have someone in your team who would be more than happy to give you intel on everyone else..."She's a bitch, he's a perv, she's a dag, he's a sweetheart" etc etc. I don't have a team or that inside info so I have to start from scratch and assume that everyone is a humourless f&ckbag until proven otherwise.

So far I've found the two young guys at the end of the hall to be good value but the skinny guy two doors down I seem to make so incredibly nervous that in the kitchenette on Thursday, he proceeded to try and relate some weird story about data files and termites in Malaysia and how they were a delicacy. I assume he was talking about the termites but at the time didn't want to stick around to clarify in case engaging him in conversation made his head explode....plus I wanted to drink my coffee while it was hot.

I've also found that the tall grumpy guy in the office next to me is really quite funny and sweet in a barely repressing the uber rage sort of way. For instance, when he popped his head into my office to ask whether I had any staples in my stapler and as I went to pass it over to him I paused and said "Wait....I assume that wasn't a euphemism for something...?" - he found it highly amusing and gave only a slightly bone chilling belly laugh. That's progress.