Apparently, I’m Having Pizza.

By Babette, Germany

New colleagues, favourite colleagues, lunch negotiations and the small routines that make a workplace feel human.

There is a new colleague at work.

I normally go into the office on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but because he was starting, I wondered if I should change my plans and go in especially. I asked whether it was important for me to be there.

The answer was simple: no. I could meet him on Monday.

So now I have questions.

How old is he? Where does he live? What is he like? These are the things you slowly discover when somebody new arrives. He is a salesman, working in the same kind of position as some of the other people I work with, while my own work connects with theirs through the different regions and customer orders.

I will meet him properly on Monday.

And then I can investigate.

Favourite colleagues are allowed.

Of course, not everybody at work stays a stranger for long.

One of my colleagues already knows that he is my favourite colleague. There is no secret about that.

I handle part of the work connected with his region, while another colleague handles a different area. That does not necessarily stop him from asking me when he needs something outside my area.

Sometimes I tell him, “That’s not my problem. You must go to the other colleague.”

Then comes the answer.

“Babette, please, please, please.”

Apparently, there are official work responsibilities, and then there is the unofficial system of knowing exactly which colleague you can ask anyway.

That may be one of the unwritten rules of working together.

There are other changes happening around us too. People arrive, positions change and responsibilities move around. We recently heard that one colleague will be moving into a new position, which I see as positive. There has already been quite a bit of change in the team, so I am curious to see how the new arrangement develops.

But some of the most important workplace relationships are built in much smaller moments.

Like lunch.

The fish problem.

Yesterday, I had lunch with colleagues.

I asked one of them what he wanted to eat, and his suggestion involved fish.

There was one small problem.

I don’t like fish.

Then he asked, “Do you like sushi?”

No.

That did not improve the situation.

In the end, several of my colleagues went inside to get their fish while I found something else. I chose pizza. Then I had to carry my plate through the whole place to get back to the others.

When my colleague saw what I had chosen, he took out his mobile phone and pretended to make a memo to himself:

“I don’t ask Babette for lunch.”

That is what happens when colleagues know each other well enough. Nobody has to pretend that everybody likes the same things. They can eat fish, I can eat pizza, and the difference becomes the joke.

Better than expected.

Work is only one part of the week. Darts has become another.

At our recent game, the team lost 5–7. That was disappointing, but the result was still better than two weeks earlier. We left before the end because it was already late and there was school the next morning.

The next match will be difficult for me to attend because of the travelling time and my husband’s night shift, so I may have to wait a little longer before I can play again.

For now, there is training.

And the last training surprised me.

I had to finish on doubles, and suddenly the darts were doing what I wanted them to do. In one round, after hitting a five and a treble one, I finished on double one. Later, I needed ten points and checked out on double five.

The other members of the team noticed.

“Whoa!”

I was surprised too.

It was better than I expected, although I am not getting too excited yet. There is another training session on Monday.

We will see what happens then.

A weekend with no plan.

After work, school homework, darts and everything else, you might expect me to have a detailed plan for the weekend.

I don’t.

“It will be a surprise.”

There are a few jobs waiting. The swimming pool needs to be made winterproof, and the last vegetables need to be harvested from the garden. I have already turned four or five kilos of tomatoes into purée for tomato sauce, and there are still more tomatoes.

Then a new possibility appeared in our conversation: tomato jam.

At first, I was not completely convinced.

Tomatoes? Sugar? On toast?

But once we looked at a recipe, it began to sound possible. Tomatoes, sugar, vanilla and a little lemon juice are not very complicated, and I can make it in my Monsieur Cuisine.

There is still one sensible rule when trying something strange for the first time: do not make too much.

Instead of starting with a huge batch, I can try half a kilo of tomatoes and see what happens. I already have the vanilla and lemon juice.

I only need to buy sugar.

And somebody else in the family can taste it first.

That is another useful unwritten rule.

The next project is always waiting.

Autumn and winter are coming, which means I am already thinking about my next projects.

I have two 1,000-piece puzzles waiting for me. They are made from baby pictures of my children, and a puzzle like that normally takes me only two or three days.

There may also be another project after the school parents’ evening. One of the children has a new class teacher, and I already know that her favourite colour is green. I am thinking about asking whether she has any special wishes for a Christmas present.

If she does, I will have my next project.

There is still plenty happening before then: a new colleague to meet, another darts training session, a garden to finish for the season, a swimming pool to prepare for winter and possibly a jar of tomato jam that nobody in the house quite knows what to expect from.

That is probably enough.This weekend, I buy the sugar.