how do you approach a colleague who owes you lunch money?
I have been lunching with colleagues and sometimes involved me footing for the bill first at a restaurant / cafe. While this not usually often, we do treat ourselves at nicer casual restaurants/ cafes at times for a great catch up during lunch.
We all take turns to pay usually – and when I say “We” they are not the same people most of the time, hence the “need” to hang out at better places to have a better ambience to chat. I will usually check how much is my share, and immediately paynow or return cash to the paying colleague (incl of the taxes).
However when it is my turn to pay, I do get episodes of colleagues forgetting to pay me back, and I believe they are genuine, because of busy schedules they forget as they did mention they would do so “later”.
To put the situation into a better context, we are all middle aged adults drawing an average of 5-fig salary, but to me it is still money – though the bill can range between $15-$25. And because we are all adults of certain level and payscale, it seems (very) petty enough of me to ask them about the owed lunch money, worse still we dont really meet daily. I guess it definitely isn’t an issue if I were to say it was a treat from me, but no it’s an AA go-dutch lunch. And I cannot be consoling myself to forget it – take it as a treat when clearly it was not.
How will you approach for someone to pay you back in such a situation? While it can be deemed a small amount, it definitely is not , especially if this happens more than once, and it is also a matter of principle when it comes to such.