I read once that friends are God's way of making up for relatives.  In short, you can't choose your relatives, but you can choose your friends.  How does this apply to a work setting?  Is it safe to say that (at least in an academic setting) you can't choose your fellow teachers and the staff, but you can choose your partners and collaborators?  You can't always choose who ends up sharing the same office, teaching the same subject, sitting on the same committee.  So is it all right to be picky about the people who end up on your research team, co-writing grants or papers with you, or otherwise endeavoring in extra-curricular or co-curricular activities?

I try very hard to include my students and my colleagues in my various projects.  However, I will also admit that there are some people whom I do not want to involve.  I sometimes feel guilty about this, wondering if I'm being too selfish or too narrow-minded.  Sometimes, other people do the guilt-tripping for me, telling me that I should bring one person or the other into the fold for whatever reason.  I wonder, though: am I wrong to be picky? After having worked so hard, so independently, with so little internal support, and having invested so much of my own resources, monetary and otherwise, haven't I earned the right to choose who gets to be on my team?

Am I the dog in the manger or am I the litte red hen?  The dog in the manger refused to leave, snapping and snarling at the horse, preventing it from eating the hay.  As a result, both the dog and the horse died.  The little red hen on the other hand, found some grains of wheat in the yard, planted them, harvested them, had the grain milled, and baked the bread all by herself. All the while, the other animals ignored her requests for assistance. When the bread was finally ready for eating, everyone suddenly showed up at her doorstep. She turned them all away and ate the bread herself.

I would like to think that I am the latter.