Penelope loved going out. In her late-twenties now, those opportunities were fewer as work and family took more of her free time. She didn’t mind, but some of her friends felt she was settling too early and abandoning them. This caused some tension, but Penelope had more to worry about than a few party friends getting salty.
Trying to network in the corporate world was proving harder than she’d imagined. Her coworkers were all in their early 40s and worked together for years before Penelope joined the team. This meant when they went out to lunch or for drinks after work, they often forgot to invite her. While she pretended it wasn’t a big deal, it really hurt when they all came back laughing from lunch, walking right past her office. But, things were getting better, she was even invited to join them at a local restaurant on Friday. Well, invited was an overstatement. Two coworkers were talking about plans while in the copy room and mentioned that everyone was welcome.