Meeting Excuse Library

Excuses to Skip a Work Lunch

The one-hour team lunch has never taken one hour. It takes eighty-five minutes, of which twelve are spent standing outside a restaurant while someone checks whether the booking is under their name or the company's. Then there is the bill, split evenly, which is a fine system until you are the person who ordered a soup. Skipping is easy and mostly uncontroversial, provided you skip a specific lunch rather than the concept of lunch. 'Only free hour of my day' is a real constraint. So is a standing call at half twelve with someone in a timezone that does not care about your team bonding. And if the venue has one vegetarian option and it is a side dish, saying so is useful feedback rather than a complaint; somebody has to tell the organiser, and it may as well be the person who isn't coming. The honourable compromise is the coffee afterwards, which is twenty minutes, costs three pounds, and delivers most of the same social value. Below are ten excuses to skip a work lunch, plus twenty in the generator.

10 hand-picked excuses
01
I'll skip the lunch, I bring the same thing every day and I've already made it.
02
Not coming to lunch, the place they've picked has one vegetarian option and it's technically a side.
03
Can't do the team lunch, my only free hour today is the hour of the team lunch.
04
Skipping. It's a sit-down place, and a one-hour lunch there has never once taken one hour.
05
Not joining, I've got a standing call at half twelve with someone whose timezone won't move for us.
06
Missing lunch, I'm doing the thing where I eat at my desk and present it as a choice.
07
I'll pass, it's a fifteen-minute walk each way and the booking is for twelve forty-five.
08
Can't make it, I've got a gym slot at one that I'll otherwise lose for the rest of the month.
09
Skipping the lunch. Splitting the bill evenly after ordering a soup is a conversation I'd like to stop having.
10
Not coming. I like the team, but I've had four consecutive lunches with people from work and I need one with nobody.
Or generate one
Click below for a fresh excuse.
FAQ
What's the most credible excuse for skipping a work lunch?
I'll skip the lunch, I bring the same thing every day and I've already made it. It works because it's specific, honest about the trade-off, and short enough that nobody has follow-up questions.
Can I use the same excuse twice?
Sparingly. Pattern-match is the enemy of plausibility. Rotate from the list of 30 on this page.
Should I post a written update instead?
Almost always yes. A two-sentence async update earns more trust than showing up silent on camera.
More excuse libraries
Excuses to Get Out of a Work Trip→How to Reschedule a Meeting Professionally→Excuses for Not Replying to an Email→Excuses for Not Responding on Slack→Excuses for Not Reading the Pre-Read→Excuses for Forgetting a Task→

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