Taking A Stand: Stand back when I’m going to lunch
There should be a sacred time around noon every day when folks simply don’t bother other folks out of respect of the age-old lunchtime tradition.
How many times has this happened to you? You’re on your way out the door with your friends, about to enjoy a nice lunch to break up the drama of the day, when out of the blue stomps in some clown whose mouth is running a mile a minute. Nevermind the fact you have luncheon plans or plans to be elsewhere, these folks have no idea anyone else in the world exists. And, as a rule, they can’t state their business and move on. They have to sit down at your desk, or in your office, and go on with a useless diatribe that doesn’t mean a hill of beans to anyone but themselves.
This is especially annoying to me since once every two weeks I attend Noon Exchange Club meetings. The No. 1 excuse for members not showing, by far, is that they were leaving their places of business for the meeting and were intercepted by one of these lunch busters who plopped down in their office and just ranted.
Hey, it happens here too, but not to me seeing I’m defensive about my time. If a person is in the way of me getting to my catfish and fries and he isn’t Ed McMahan with a big fat check for me , well, I’m going to tell them to go on about their business until my personal time is up.
Of course, what bothers me is many other people aren’t as direct as I am. I feel folks who interrupt normal lunch-time activities are just plain selfish and rude, therefore, I treat them as the intruders they are. However, some folks are just too nice to these lunch thieves as they’ll sit there and listen to them go on and on without saying a word. Meanwhile, you’ve got luncheon partners who are waiting impatiently, stomach a-growling and tempers a-raging.
Now the smart ones will use creative means to get rid of these lunch-time terrors. For instance, down here at the paper we’ve used the telephone call to relieve a victim of these unwanted visitors. The call is always the perfect segue to extricate a person from a boring conversation partner.
There’s also the overhead paging system which is an even more direct way to loosen the grip of the lunch-time visitor. However, in some cases, nothing short of nailing the annoying person with a tranquilizer gun will remove them from your office since they believe they are the best game in town.
Granted, sometimes it’s hard to cast off these selfish guests, especially if you’re doing business with them. You can’t hardly tell a client to get bent when the clock strikes 12, even though their condescending attitude in delaying your lunch is more deserving of a punch in the nose than a hearty handshake.
Therefore, I think the emphasis should be given to educating these noon-time crusaders as to the rudeness of their actions. Come on, 99 percent of the world goes to lunch at noon so there’s a good chance the person whom you’re talking to at noon is wanting to go, and is likely scheming about ways to get you out of his or her office. Generally, people who want to do lunch will stop listening to you at precisely 11:59 a.m., so no matter how important you think you are, you are wasting your breath. The person is thinking about food, not your unending babble.
Word of warning. Don’t come in here all wound up talking to me at 11:50 a.m. because you will be dismissed when it’s lunch time. While you may have something important to say, it’s highly unlikely your offering will matter compared with a hamburger steak and a side order of curly fries.
(Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)