1. It is not always possible to control the volume of your voice: If I had a pound for every moment when someone has to tell me to lower the volume and be quiet for shouting at them accidently then as the saying continues I would be a millionaire. OK so I may be a bit loud but just tell me to quiet down and I promise not to take offence.
  2. You will always wait for the next life when arriving to the office in the hope that you don’t have to make small talk with your manager: “Did you have a good day?” Or conversations on the weather I find are best avoided if possible but like everyone I do have these questions up my sleeve in case we do end up in the lift together alone.
  3. Someone other than your mum or your best friend asks how you are: Do you find that people tend to ask how you are not because they care but because they just want to make small talk with you. Just sometimes if I have had an argument with my husband or just feeling a bit URGH I just want to be left alone.
  4. You have nightmares on how you are going to maintain a conversation with your hairdresser for two hours: We have all been there and trying to avoid telling the hairdresser our life story, we try and recount a night out making it sound more fabulous than it probably was.
  5. You avoid dashing to the bathroom when you notice the chief executive has just gone at the same time: How can you have small talk with the CEO in the bathroom without stumbling for words or getting embarrassed.
  6. You are introduced to someone by your friend and they immediately head to the bathroom: I often find myself either staring into space until my friend arrives back or carry out some fake texting instead of just getting it together and chatting like a normal person.
  7. When you want to leave a party, instead of saying good bye to everyone you just try and slip away without anyone noticing: Spending half an hour giving awkward good bye hugs to everyone can be extremely frustrating at times, but I am getting better and less of a social suicide.
  8. In anticipation for a big meeting at work you drink endless amount of coffee and when it comes to the meeting you forget to blink for the whole hour and a half: If this sounds like you, it may be time to switch to decaf and take small sips.
  9. You chat to your work colleague who sits opposite you more on email than in real person: How did we cope before the introduction of technology. There was a day when human to human banter was necessary.
  10. You continually check your Facebook at work and then suspiciously cover it up as soon as someone walks past: Those important social updates can maybe wait until you get home or can be done on mobile internet.