Office Boys

I think i might be invisible. That seems to me like the only logical explanation why i am never invited to team lunches. I do remember being grilled about team bonding and interactions while being interviewed for my job. Everyone wants to know if you are psychologically compatible to be working with a group of people to achieve palpable progress and tangible results. Of course we were all very good at working as a team. Thats how we all graduated. But in the corporate world, they think this is all very important. When people spend atleast 10 hrs everyday interacting with computers, laptops and mobile devices , i understand how important social interactions are. Even primates have known to indulge in social activities, so human beings as descendants of apes will naturally display similar tendencies. Sit down together for lunch sharing food and stories, celebrate birthdays together, catch the latest blockbuster together and ofcourse the team outings. Alas, the pictures painted by peers is all glossy. I have discovered that people prefer eating at their desks and not being disturbed at work. That they prefer working from home, when daily baths happen at 2 pm and breakfasts are ignored. The younger lads care more for a smoke than for coming to work in a clean shirt. Conversations with the opposite gender are strictly professional, even if it means your lady team member has to have lunch by herself. Chai break is only for boys, and there are multiple code words for the stuff that cannot be mentioned in the presence of a teetotaler without blushed stares. I feel like i'm taken back in time to the high school i studied in, where even the uniforms were different for girls and boys. Conversations seldom happened with peers of the opposite gender, and even when it did - it would merely concern academics. But we grew up, perfectly capable of having a casual debate over various topics. Graduated together, forging friendships that have lasted the test of time. I have found companionship in the office space with like minded individuals and i dont eat lunch by myself anymore. I do hope that the office guys grow up, like the high school teenagers i knew.