It's happened to all of us.
The company sponsored a lunchtime charity event, and somebody needs to go or the table will be empty. And since the table has a card on it with your company name, that would probably be bad. So you go. And you're miserable.
You get there about 15 minutes after it's supposed to start, but the doors aren't open yet and there are 250 people crowding a hallway. Everybody's standing around in little groups already, so networking is awkward. There's a volunteer selling raffle tickets, so you spend another $20.
The doors open, and you head in. The rest of the people at your table are all co-workers, so you're not getting any networking done there... And everybody else is already sitting down, munching on stale dinner rolls.
The program starts and the food comes at the same time. It's chicken breast with some kind of cream sauce, a potato thing, and three tiny carrots with an accompanying tiny zucchini. They play a sad video, but you don't think anyone's watching it, because they're either eating or looking at their phones.
More people talking at the podium and a sliver of cheesecake. 45 minutes later, there's some applause (you're not sure why, because you were answering an email). Looks like you won a raffle item: a strange ceramic vase. And 15 minutes after that, you can go home.
In other words, you just wasted 2 hours for some #SadChicken.
