Find an Open Chair

A group of us gathers each day around noon in the cafetorium (yes, my company made up this stupid word to describe the open area where we consume food).  It’s roughly the same group with some outlying revolving members, and we’re all from the same team.  Other members of our team see us, but don’t stop, heading out to eat instead.  Still more see us, and choose to sit somewhere else.  A few will even sit by themselves rather than sit with us.  A larger group chooses to eat at their desks every day, whether with food they brought from home or with food they went out and acquired.

I find it fascinating that we have so many anti-social people on our team, so I started breaking down some statistics.  Not counting the managers, who never eat with us (something about keeping the separation between management and peons), we have 25 people that regularly come to the office.  Of those 25, we have 10 that will gather together.  That’s more than half of our team that is anti-social. 

At first I thought it might be cultural or racial, because the majority of our team is of Indian ancestry.  But it’s not.  Of the 10 people that eat together regularly, 4 of them are of Indian ancestry, 3 are black, and 3 are white.  So, a pretty equal mix and representative sample of what makes up our team.  Of the 15 people that choose not to eat with the group, 11 of them are of Indian ancestry, 1 is black, and 3 are white.  So, while not equal, it’s still a representative sample from every group on our team.

It’s not gender-related, because of the 10 people that eat together regularly, 2 are women and 8 are men.  Of the remaining 15, 3 are women and 12 are men.

I even broke down married versus single.  Of the 10 lunch buddies, 6 are married and 4 are single.  Of the remaining 15, 12 are married and 2 are single.

So, after all of this wasted time, all I can conclude is that those 15 people are just anti-social.  They have all been asked to lunch at least once and turned us down.  Everyone else knows that you don’t need a formal invitation.  The table is always open, and all you need to do is find an open chair.  If there is no room left at the table, then we will grab another table and drag it over.  There is never an excuse for someone to not feel welcome.  For now, I’ll just enjoy eating with them and enjoy the laughs.  They’re a great group of people, and I feel blessed to know them all.