Well, now I am done with the work event in which attendance is required.
Technically, I have the medical excuse that I only had to attend the parts where I felt comfortable that I would not catch something. Well, I went to everything and I caught feelings, as they say. By the end I felt so lost and disconnected I was thinking about retirement.
I think it was because I was looking forward to intimate conversations with with friends, and instead I found polite chit-chat with strangers. So, so many strangers. I think I sabotaged myself: I made some cake and I sent an e-mail with a description of what I was wearing so people could find me and help themselves to cake. What happened instead was that people found me and earnestly asked, “May I have some cake?” I soon found myself replying, “I BELIEVE I SENT YOU AN EMAIL ASKING YOU TO COME HAVE CAKE SO YES YOU CAN HAVE CAKE.”
I know they were being polite, and it’s not like they were dropping a curtsey first, but instead of connecting through cake I just got chit-chat over and over, half a minute of chit-chat when I didn’t have thirty seconds with friends telling them how I feel about them.
And then on top of that, another pair of shoes suffered structural collapse.
The person who lobbed the shoe scat at me last time told me it was happening again.
I had to leave and go to Shoe Carnival and purchase replacement shoes, to which he said, “But now how are we going to follow the breadcrumbs and find where you are?”
6 responses to “Worst part of on-site”
Oh yeah I might well have done that, too, and also yes, no, that would also not be what I was going for.
Maybe next time you can say in the email “to get cake, you are required to tell me your [favorite childhood cartoon or current most-recommended restaurant or whatever]” and that will kill the “May I have some cake?” required part of the interaction?
But UUUGH.
KC – Oh, then the cake would be wasted. I wouldn’t eat cake from a stranger. I would prefer a silent transaction where the person makes eye contact, I nod, they take cake, leave. Like an anonymous meaningless cake transaction.
… I am confused, then. Were all the cake strangers actual-strangers instead of (what I was assuming) people you have only interacted with via email or similar and therefore don’t recognize or *know*-know but did want to get to know? Did you bulk email instead of target-email?
KC – I somehow chose to re-use an email list targeting only my peers, but they were peers from teams I never met. Canadians and the like.So, yes, many total strangers.
Ohhh dear yes that seems less functional for “talking with people you know” but oh well. The cake was likely still enjoyed?
KC – absolutely. People were very nice about it.