Читать книгу Blaikie’s Guide to Modern Manners - Thomas Blaikie - Страница 24

An extraordinary lunch-time embarrassment – perhaps unique – occurred not in the canteen but in the gardens of Soho Square in London. A young woman was enjoying a picnic with a friend. She was suddenly aware that her boss, Mr Noy, was nearby, apparently trying to pick up a young man. He hadn’t seen her. Ideally, she would have liked to move away. But this wasn’t possible because Mr Noy was so near that he might have overheard even a whispered explanation or seen her should she have got to her feet. Her only hope was to try to remain concealed behind her companion. As she was tiny this was not such a challenge. But she soon found that she was not quite tiny enough and every time her companion moved, she had to move too.

In Matt’s canteen, which they call a restaurant, it’s not quite as bad as this. But he often sees people with their trays in severe uncertainty about who to sit with. ‘Supposing it’s an editorial assistant from one of our magazines like Seals and Sealants. There’s space on my table. Maybe he’s thinking, “I don’t want to sit with him, he’s a boring money man.” Or perhaps it’s, “All the people on that table are more senior; I can’t sit with them.”’

Other piquant dilemmas: do you sit at the already overcrowded table with your friends or join the new person who is sitting on their own? If it were a social occasion, you might make an effort. But this is work, isn’t it? And there’s the getting-away problem, because, unlike at normal meals, you often have to leave someone to finish their lunch on their own.

 Don’t sit with the management if there is space elsewhere. It’ll look like crawling.

 If the only seat left is at a table occupied by management, they should put themselves out to offer it to you.

 As on ordinary social occasions, don’t leave people on their own. Just because you’re at work, it doesn’t mean you’ve turned barbaric.

 If you have appointments, calls to make etc. it can’t be helped if you have to leave someone to finish their lunch alone. But you should say, ‘Excuse me. Sorry to leave you on your own.’