I think the concept of ‘popular’ at work is a bit silly but for the sake of your question, I am and have been very well-liked at most of my jobs. People give me compliments and show their appreciation often and I usually do float on that high for a minute, but I also don’t really absorb it. I have real bad imposter syndrome and low self esteem. Those ‘popular’ people aren’t usually as high on themselves as you might think.

As for what actually makes me happy, idk maybe my cats and seeing people I care about succeed.

I’m glad you get happy when you get compliments, you deserve to feel happy. I can’t imagine ever being annoyed by compliments.

I genuinely enjoy human contact. It’s why I like working in-office rather than remote. Because I naturally enjoy being around others, I want them to be happy too.

My compliments are genuine. If you look close enough, there’s usually something you can find about a person that you can give a genuine compliment to. That fosters good will between people. The better they feel around me, the better I feel.

Compliments don’t get annoying. I love getting them, especially when I know they’re genuine. It’s why I always make sure my own compliments are genuine.

The only time it gets uncomfortable is when compliments go over the top.

School? I just talked to everyone and asked them questions about their lives, because I was curious. Everyone was so different from me.

Work? Well I’m old now and cranky, people just deferred to me and I didn’t want to and for some raisin people loved me. I didn’t want them to, I just wanted to get stuff done and go home. But they’re alright.

I ran a large organization that sold test answers. By my senior year I had a full casino going.

Social media validation isn’t real validation.