Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
A few weeks ago I was at an event with a couple hundred people in another city. I knew a few others there, but not well and due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to find a place to sit amongst others. For some people that's no big deal; strike up a conversation, have a seat next to your new best friend. It was torture. I wandered around and basically did anything I could do avoid having to do this. I did find a seat, but I totally took the easy way out. I sat at an empty table and made other people come to me. I would guess that any extroverted person reading this probably has no idea how stressing that scenario was for me, but there you are.
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Holy crap, I was literally in
that exact situation a few years back. I was doing some consulting work for a Vancouver-based client. For most of the contract I could work from my office here in Calgary and communicate with the client remotely, but on a few occasions I had to travel to their location to meet in person. One such instance occurred on the day of their corporate Christmas party. The manager I was working with was the chair of their social committee, and since their office was shutting down at noon that day anyway, he invited me to come to the party. I would have much rather returned to my hotel or explored the streets of Vancouver by myself, but that's NOT an invitation you decline. Plus, the event was at the Four Seasons, so if nothing else, I knew I'd get a good meal out of it.
Being the conscientious, punctual person that I am, I showed up exactly on time. What I didn't know was that the meal was preceded by a mix & mingle cocktail hour. Since I was a consultant from out-of-town who was doing work with only a handful of employees at that organization, I knew literally NOBODY in the room (~500 people) and felt incredibly uncomfortable. I know exactly what you mean when you describe it as "torture". In the end, I just stood quietly next to the bar slowly sipping my drink.
I'm sure the extroverts reading this are judging both of us for wasting what could have been prime networking opportunities, but they have absolutely no idea how terrible being in that situation is to an introvert.