First Day Jitters Gone Wrong
Anonymous Guilty Wallflower #780 · General
So my name is Alex and I started at this new office job a couple days ago. First day was pretty nerve-wracking for me, you know? I'm usually good with small talk but being in a completely new environment just got the best of me. I introduced myself to everyone and tried to act like I knew what I was doing even though I had no idea about our processes or the names of most people around me. Now it's day three and today is when my boss, Mark, expects us all to share a bit more in-depth about ourselves during a team meeting. While prepping last night, I made sure to reread our employee handbook just so I could sound prepared but there was this one thing that really stuck out to me: it explicitly stated that we are not allowed to eat food from home or bring drinks into the office unless they're in a designated eating area. So today during lunch, while everyone else seemed relaxed and talking about weekend plans, I couldn't help but feel like this rule was ridiculous. Plus, Mark himself had water bottles at his desk all week long - how did he get away with that? Fueled by this, when we returned from lunch for the meeting, I decided to make a point of it. During the meeting, Mark started asking about what everyone brings for their morning coffee or tea. So I raised my hand and said 'Actually, our handbook says you're not allowed to bring food or drinks into the office,' looking directly at Mark. Everyone was silent, then people started whispering and glancing between each other nervously. Mark just stared back at me with this look that felt like a thousand eyes were on me instead of talking about work stuff. He ended up bringing up my comment again later in our meeting and explained the exceptions for water bottles during meetings because they're necessary but everyone should still respect the rule otherwise. I left feeling pretty guilty because it was clear I made things awkward and maybe even caused trouble, not to mention that nobody seemed excited to work with me now.