My coworkers started charging cancellation fees for bailing on lunch plans.
By @nicohm · Work
A few people in my office go out to lunch together almost every day. To stop people from backing out last-minute, one guy proposed a 'cancellation fee' of $5, paid to the person who organized the lunch. Now everyone is treating it like a real policy.
The full story
I work in a pretty standard office, and there's a group of about 6-8 of us who regularly get lunch. We're not super close friends, just a lunch group. The issue is that people often bail at the last minute, which can be annoying if someone made a reservation or picked a place based on the group size. To 'solve' this, one of my coworkers suggested a $5 cancellation fee if you cancel within an hour of the planned lunch time. He framed it as a joke at first, but then people actually started doing it. Last week, someone had to stay on a call that ran late, cancelled 20 minutes before, and the guy who picked the restaurant actually Venmo-requested her $5. She paid it, and now it feels like this is a real thing. I think it's ridiculous. We're coworkers getting a casual lunch, not signing a contract. A last-minute work thing is a valid reason to cancel. On the other hand, it *is* annoying when people are flaky, and this has definitely made people more committed. I haven't been in the situation yet, but I'm trying to figure out what I'll do if I need to cancel. Do I just pay the fee to avoid drama, or do I push back and say this is an absurd system for a casual lunch group?
How people voted
- Bad Move — 31% (45 votes)
- Needs Context — 40% (57 votes)
- Reasonable — 29% (42 votes)
Readers are split: “Needs Context” leads with 40% — 144 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@peytonish — Can't wait for the quarterly earnings report.
@fayehm — Find new friends.
@noelkindof — A man's word is his bond, pay the fee or don't commit to the lunch.
@gushm — My old job did this for our fantasy football league punishments and it got super awkward. Someone had to pay another guy's bar tab.
@wyattok — This isn't a friend group, it's a badly run small business.
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