What do you do if your boss asks you to lunch and you have lunch plans with someone else?
One boss I had frequently called me at the last minute asking if I was free for lunch. My answer was always yes, unless I had plans that could not be broken. With everyone else, I explained the situation and said sorry, I’m trading up. One year I gained 15 pounds because I had already had lunch but still went anyway! Now that I think about it, I wonder if he thought I was a loser with no friends since it was always last minute and I always said yes. How you handle an invite from your boss depends on the relationship and how much access you have, whether it’s to discuss important pressing business or just to shoot the breeze and how frequently you actually have a meal together. So accept the invitation unless you have an important business meeting — and if that is the case then, let your boss know but offer to cancel if necessary.
I just received an expensive gift from a vendor we do a lot of business with. I’d really like to keep it but our company policy prevents me from accepting it. How do I explain this to the client without offending them?
Hello! There’s a phone call for you — it’s the 1990s and they’d like their management thinking back. Have you been paying attention to any of the news in the past 10 to 20 years or so? Accepting expensive gifts at work — bad. Focusing on making work and the world a better place — good. The people with whom you do business should know better, too, but at the risk of offending anyone, you should simply express thanks for the gesture and politely tell your client that you must return the gift as company policy prevents you from accepting anything above a nominal value. If you want to suggest that they make a donation instead in your name to a good cause that would be even better, and you’ll feel better, too.