To be pissed off with people who dominate the conversation...

[glassescase]

Went for lunch with a group of friends from work, all ages from mid twenties to mid fifties, six of us in all. Two of them totally dominated the "conversation", with a third getting a bit of input. the rest of us had to resort to trying to interrupt their flow to have any chance to speak. If two people started to speak at the same time, and one of them was from the dominant pair, they would simply keep talking, ever louder, until the other person gave up. I find this to be incresingly the way it goes, these days, and end up resentfully eating my lunch listening to another long, boring tale about something/someone which does not interest me at all.

Orbinator, that woman sounds so incredibly rude. How have you managed to not punch her?

Yet another reason I go to lunch on my own or only with one other person. Who cares if they are not eating carbs and the clothes and holiday they are buying ! and they go on and on and on!!

I really dislike going out for lunch with colleagues because I am very aware of what I'm saying and that I do seem to "hold court" quite a lot.

I often say to people, "oh just tell me to shut up, I do hate the sound of my own voice"

BUT when we go for lunch, we sit down, order drinks and everyone just seems to sit quietly waiting for someone else to speak - now one thing I hate more than the sound of my own voice is weird uncomfortable silences when in company, so unfortunately I tend to overcompensate by talking shite and revealing things about me that I shouldn't - It's just like a panic takes over, and in my head I hear "keep talking, keep talking, keep talking"

I am always thinking 'why won't someone else speak' but they very rarely do, even when asked 'have you ever done anything like that' or 'what do you think'

Of course that's only with work colleagues - and realistically what do we have in common with colleagues apart from the fact that we work together hey? With friends I'm an absolute gem

Now I'm leaving this post as I realise that I have referred to myself (as I or I'm) about 14 times yawn

See, I've gone and spoke about myself so much that I actually forget what the OP was saying...

Ah, conversation dominators, YANBU, but is there anyway that the people you refer to may think the same as me?

It's true, VelvetSnow, that some people are very, very poor conversationalists and manage to halt a conversation every time they speak.

It's as though they don't know the rules of the game.

If you say to someone, "What did you do over the weekend?" you are not expecting either "Not much" or five hours banging on about every last thing. You expect a few sentences and then a question back, asking what you did. So many people don't seem to get it at all.

ImperialBlether - absolutely!

Some people even force a forkful into their mouths when asked a question just to avoid having to speak out! Then of course SuperVelvetSnow to the rescue with her dull banging on about shite once again to overcompensate silences!

also in NorthWest, and local to Wirral, a little