observations on Work Awkwardness

I'm usually such a fan of awkwardness, but only amongst peers I guess. I have trouble dealing with it when I'm around older work people.

Today the CFO of my company took me, his son, and two people higher than me on the corporate ladder out to lunch. I was on the periphery of the conversation of course, since I've only been working there 3 months and they're all older and married. There was a point of the conversation that two people were talking, and while my eyes were wandering around the table they accidentally caught the eyes of the CFO. We were both instantly awkward, and at the exact same time shot our eyes down toward the table and reached out to grab our drink and take a sip. The mirror image-ness of our awkard motions made it all the more obvious and worse.

I was so mad at myself...I hate when stuff like that takes control of my body and the destination my eyes move. Later in the lunch, I was looking out the window and I heard the conversation just stop. Aaaaand cue awkward silence I thought to myself. I didn't dare bring my eyes back to the table, because then I might have felt responsible to remedy the blazing silence at that table. Lucky for me, I was already looking away so I could be a casual observer on who would blurt out anything just to fill the space.

It was my boss who saved the day. But he started talking about work, something everyone could talk about without any fear of running out of things to say. I can't stand people who talk about work during the lunch break or after you leave work. These people really have very little in the way of personality and they're usually the type to work way more than they should. Unless you're like a video game tester or something along those lines. Then that'd be pretty cool.