My coworkers and I have a 'cancellation fee' for bailing on lunch plans.
By @willaagain · Work
We started a system where if you cancel lunch plans less than an hour before, you owe the group $5. I had to cancel for a legitimate, last-minute work meeting my boss pulled me into, and now they're insisting I still have to pay up.
The full story
I work in a pretty collaborative office, and a group of about six of us has a standing tradition of going out for lunch every Friday. The problem was, people would often bail at the last minute, leaving the person who made the reservation looking awkward, or just throwing off the group's plans. It became a running joke that was starting to get genuinely annoying. So, a few months ago, one of my coworkers half-jokingly suggested we implement a 'cancellation fee.' If you cancel within an hour of the reservation, you have to Venmo $5 to whoever is picking the spot next week, to go towards an appetizer for the table. We all agreed it was a funny, low-stakes way to make people commit. It's worked surprisingly well. Until this past Friday. Our lunch reservation was for 1 p.m. At around 12:40, my director called me into her office for an 'urgent' and unforeseen issue with a client presentation. It was a mandatory, drop-everything kind of meeting. I immediately texted the group chat, explained the situation, and apologized for having to bail. Now they're telling me I owe them $5. Their argument is that a rule is a rule, and the whole point is to have a no-exceptions policy. They're saying if we start making exceptions for 'good excuses,' the whole system falls apart. My argument is that a mandatory work summons is completely different from flaking because you're 'not feeling it' or decided to run an errand instead. It was literally out of my hands. I feel like I'm being penalized for something that wasn't my fault, and it feels ridiculous to have to pay a penalty for prioritizing my job at my job. I'm refusing to pay on principle, and now the group chat is weirdly tense.
How people voted
- Bad Move — 30% (23 votes)
- Needs Context — 33% (25 votes)
- Reasonable — 37% (28 votes)
Readers are split: “Reasonable” leads with 37% — 76 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@reeseee — I'd pay them in pennies. A rule is a rule, right?
@ineskindof — Wow, this is intense for a work lunch. We just have a group chat where people post memes when someone bails.
@edieyy — theyre gonna lose a friend over five dollars lol
@hollytbh — Pay the $5 and then when they ask you to lunch next week just say 'sorry, it's not in my budget'.
@ivyish — The appetizer better be a 'Presentation Panic Platter'.
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