Meetings

I hate going for meetings where things just drag on and people don't know when to end it. You go to the meeting with a rough idea of an agenda and things to discuss but along the way, things start to veer of tangent and the next thing you know you're discussing some hot gossip about national leaders.

The worst part is, I'm too polite to tell people to stick to the agenda. I don't want people to feel bad or 'loose face'. I just smile and nod politely. Most of the time I have time to kill anyway, but at times I really need to use the loo and wish the meeting will end soon.

It's the same with phone calls. Most of the time, I just don't feel like making small talk on the phone with people I hardly know, let alone remember their name. They start of with "how are you" and I say "okay" even though I'm all tense at having to talk on the phone.

I guess I'm just so not a talker when I'm with someone new. With people I am comfortable with at work I'm quite talkative. I can joke with them and talk about mundane things. However, when I'm with someone new, I'm usually quite formal or even totally ignore them. Its not that I think lesser of the person, I just dread talking to new people. I rather be introduced by someone I'm already comfortable with and then have 3 person in the conversation. I suck at 1 to 1 conversation.