I've noticed an odd phenomenon in my own life. A couple of times throughout the course of my current job there have been coworkers who are in my department who I haven't wanted to particularly spend time around. Last time it was the helpdesk guy who put in his month's notice and then suddenly was unbearable to be around. He wound up losing a lot of friends during that time, but I was happy for any excuse to not see him on breaks or at lunch. Instead I decided on a whim to email an acquaintance there who I had chatted with a few times in group settings and ask her if she'd like to go to lunch.
She and I wound up spending most of our breaks and lunches together for a while after that and she's still one of my best friends.
This last time it's been the same disturbance in my own group that I've written about. It's caused me to search for any excuse to make alternate lunch plans and I've wound up making at least one more friend this same way.
It makes me wonder why I only do this during the worst times at my job :-P
It also strikes me that for some reason the vast majority of my friends are female. I would say that at work female friends outnumber male friends at least 3 to 1. I really don't understand it, I guess I tend to find women easier to talk to, or at least, they stick around more? I'm not really sure to be honest.
Anyway, a weird one, but I guess it just goes to show that even stressful times can wind up being positive, and maybe giving more people a chance is a good thing. Although...I'm not totally sold on it yet.