lunch

My female owner gave church a miss today coz there was some special event which was happening, which meant that there would be heaps of people congregating at a specified place. Her social phobic genes were activated, causing her to stay home to avoid the crowd.

In doing so, she managed to catch a friend who was still working at her former organisation on MSN. Through the yummy updates (which can be summarised in one line: things have turned for the worse), my female owner started to reconnect with her former life.

She also learnt the different diplomatic ways that the people in the office had been using to avoid social contact:

• Say you want to eat in (your office)
• Say you need to run errands
• Say you are on a diet, so you are not eating
• Go to the gym
• Lunch with a clique
• Be on medical leave

Other tricks she tried in the past (some require prior planning with other like-minded people, usually through email):

• Make external lunch appointments
• Run off just before lunch-time before the person approaches you (make sure you don’t walk past the person’s office)
• Say there is no more space in the car (if you can, look apologetic)
• Close your office door before lunch-time (and keep quiet!)
• Arrange your schedule so that you will be at external sites before or after lunch
• Say you haven’t decided whether you will be eating (if you are caught unaware)

After a while, the person will get the idea and stop eyeing you as a potential lunch partner.