I just started a job at a new place (office job) been here around 4 months already. I’m young (F, early 20s) there’s only 3 other people roughly my age and the rest are a lot older.
I have a boss who I mostly answer to, everyone else answers to a different boss. But there’s one guy who also works for my boss a lot too, he’s higher up than me but he’s a little younger. Even though we’re a few years apart, we don’t really have much in common. My boss randomly came up with the idea that if we meet our targets (only the three of us) we can have an “award”. I thought the award was gonna be bonus pay or something but nope, turns out if we hit the targets for the week we get to go either to drinks or a lunch, just the three of us. My boss is over 10 years older than us. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I’m a little discouraged. I just find it painful, me, this younger co-worker and my boss all sat in a bar or a restaurant trying to converse when we all kind of have nothing in common.
Oh and by the way, I’m not even involved in meeting these targets as I’m not even involved in that section of work, I’m actually training in a different area so I have no idea why my boss has included me in these “reward” outings or in the meeting target meetings. I also think I’m the lowest paid person there (which, you know, I understand as I’m new).
We do have work socials with the rest of the office which are more bearable because it’s a whole group of people and you can mingle, it’s not just three people. I don’t want to seem like a whiner but I’m a very introverted person and I enjoy having my lunch breaks to myself and other than work, I have nothing in common with these two guys. Is this normal for work? I have heard of being rewarded free lunches from companies for morale, but I’ve never heard of when it’s just three people not the whole office.