Chat Over Coffee

As the company I work for is big on employee-oriented endeavors, the latest program on HR's list is Coffeetalk where a group of employees chat over coffee, with the goal of getting to know each other better.

I just had my turn, and we had coffee plus pastries (yum!) at a nearby coffee shop. I thought that it was a cool activity 'cause it was a great way to get to know some of my colleagues. It's so funny and sad that after six months, I still know only my teammates. I IM my SMEs in the local office all the time without knowing how they look like. I even have a college classmate in the same company, yet I haven't even talked to him yet except for a few exchanges over IM.

The activity was quite awkward for me. I felt really shy, though I tried to join in the laughter as they were all quite funny. I was feeling really shy all throughout, though, so I mostly kept to myself and dug into my cinnamon-flavored pastry unless it was my turn to talk.

We introduced ourselves, gave our first impressions of each other then asked each other pageant-fitting questions that HR created. Their first impressions of me? They said I was quiet (true 'cause I'm shy), suplada (again, 'cause I'm shy), very vocal (true), Inglisera (true?), nice (no comment) and smart (no comment). We were allowed to comment on the first impressions about us, and I just thought that the latter two were very subjective and didn't merit comments from me.

Overall, it was a fun activity. It was a great way for us to meet outside the work place. We would otherwise not have the chance to talk that way if we were just in the office, especially since we didn't have interactions with each other. Well, at least I gained six new acquaintances tonight, and hopefully some of them could become friends over time.