Readers remember the times they wish they’d stuck to their own social circle
At a client’s drinks reception, my boss was seen openly asking guests if they had finished their drinks before minesweeping the floor. He then fell asleep at the table with his shirt undone and belly hanging out. Not sure he managed to swap any business cards that night, but people certainly remember him.
While meeting a contact over coffee, I ordered a regular latté. My companion looked me up and down and said “Sure you don’t want to ask for skimmed milk?”
I might have accidentally had a row with my sales manager in front of our clients, after he was messing with my nicely organised conference stand...
I once sat next to a woman at a business lunch who asked to try my fruit salad – then started scooping it out of my dish with her hands until it was all done.
I usually count myself lucky that I look quite young for my age. I didn’t, however, consider myself lucky when I attended a networking event and was continuously asked whose daughter I was. Nobody would believe I was old enough to be doing my job.
I once fell down a flight of stairs at a networking dinner and spent the rest of the night in A&E having my arm put in plaster.
I developed food poisoning at a conference, but the two people I was meeting (a client and my boss) had no sympathy. Even when I ran off mid-meeting, hand covering my mouth, they carried on when I got back to the table as if nothing had happened…
On more than one occasion, people have misheard my name (Grace) as ‘Chris’ in business circles so now, rather than correcting them, I tend to give in and think of it as my networking alter ego. Bit awkward when my name badge gives the game away though.
While looking over the seating plans for a networking dinner with a friend, I noticed we were to be seated on the same table as a nice but boring acquaintance. “Well, I guess that’s any chances of a fun night out the window,” I said... before realising that the guy in question was standing right behind me.
A friend introduced me to her aunt, who was high up in the HR department of a major household name. She told me to email her any time. She didn’t reply when I wrote to her so instead of dropping it I emailed back asking her if I’d done something wrong, then twice more to tell her how rude she was. At which point, the person I’d actually been emailing (who had the same name) asked me to stop…
Next month:
Office pranks gone wrong
Email us at PMeditorial@haymarket.com