The Cubicle Times

CUBICLE – Sometimes when I am having a good conversation, I would ask a coworker to add me on his/her Facebook; some other times, people ask me to add them on Facebook.  As Facebook becomes more and more popular, it’s a good way to stay connected with your friends and family without really spending time with them, but at the same time, many others who you don’t necessary want them to see what’s going on in your life will also be able to, well, stay connected.

Either way, these are friends who are already on your Friend’s list, but today I just want to write about those who are trying to get on your Friend’s list.  It’s really awkward when a coworker asks you to ask him/her to your Facebook, and the reality is that you don’t want to let them see what you share on FB.  If you just told them that you don’t want to add them, that would be a complete social suicide; if you did add these coworkers on your FB, now you would have to watch out what you say publicly on FB (of course, you should never talk crap about the company on your FB in the first place).  Here are a few suggestions I came up with today:

1. Close Friends Only: “Sorry, I keep my FB for my close friends and relatives only.  It’s a bit weird, but I hope you understand that I’d like to keep this part within my immediate circles.”  Something like this should work for most; even though it shows that you do not consider this requester a close friend, you’ve communicated your position well by setting the boundary.  Of course, let’s hope this requester is not a relative of yours, hehe~
2. Send Me A Request: “Oh, you know what, let me give you my Email address, and you can add me later.” Some of these guys might be saying it, but would forget later on about the request.  This can be used another way to have the other person take the initiative to add, and maybe (and hopefully) this person will forget or lose that piece of paper with your Email.  Of course, if this person does add you, you can still “ignore” the request.  The excuse… will be a little harder :P
3. What’s Your Email? : If you want to pretend that you’re also interested (yeah, sometimes we do fake this, so I understand if you think this way), ask for the Email and say that you’ll add him/her.  You can “accidentally” write down the wrong Email, so next time you can just say sorry about writing down the wrong Email address.  Yeah, you can also toss the paper into your toilet when you wipe your butt with it, but you’d better come up with a good excuse, too ~
4. Call Me: “You know, call me because it’s faster.  Or you can Email me because I check my Email more than I check my FB since work blocks FB.”  This is another polite way to avoid this person adding you on your FB, and at the same time you kind of show that you want to hang out despite not adding him/her on the FB.  If you say it with the wrong tone, then this can turn out to be bad, too, so maybe you can practice it in facing a mirror once or twice :P

Of course, we try our best not to lie, even though they might be just white lies.  So next time when you hear me use these excuses, you know what I mean :P