Why I don’t like work social events

Like many people, I’m not good at small talk.

My brain often works too slow in these situation, which means that I can’t think of the things to say quick enough, and by the time I have, it’s often too late. This inevitably leads to periods of silence, even with people I spend forty hours a week alongside.

But the fact that I’m rubbish at small talk means, stick me in a room of work colleagues, with a bottle of beer in my hand and ask me to mingle, I’ll struggle and start working out at what time I might be able to sneak away to the safety of…