Thanks for asking

It’s like this. I work with this guy. He’s probably a nice guy. But he’s a bit (ahem) tedious. Not a bad guy, but just a bit boring. I can usually muster up some fake extrovertish qualities and make conversation for a certain amount of time without much fuss… But I can only really do that for so long before I start contemplating all of the ways that I can potentially avoid continuing the conversation or, god forbid, ever having to repeat it again. But as I said, I work with this guy. And he had a project that I offered to help on. I would have been happy to help on. But really he didn’t want my help. He just wanted me to go to lunch. Again and again and again.

Lunch would have been okay, if we were just there to discuss the project and get on with the work and cordially ingest some food. But really we didn’t talk about the project at all. In actuality we had rather stilted conversations about “what I like to do in my spare time” and other blind-date-like questions of that sort. Pain. Full. (not to mention not a great digestive aid!)

So what do you do when trying to duck someone’s advances? I’ve decided to start thinking creatively about it after Jo offered this helpful advice today:

“Set up a rule in Outlook. When he mails you, he gets an auto-response: Sorry, Jessica has died…”

Needless to say this is brilliant. I may not do it, but just thinking about it somehow makes my day feel a bit brighter.

Unfortunately, Jessica contracted swine flu and has died. While she would undoubtedly have loved to join you for lunch/edit your copy/grab a coffee/etc., regrettably she is now unable to accept your generous invitation. Thank you for your email and have a nice day.