How not to win over colleagues

So last week I was eating lunch at Google as I do every so often for business (meeting up with my AdWords rep) or pleasure (hanging with friends). And, as usual, I had a delicious, delightful lunch.

A few minutes later, I arrived at my afternoon consulting gig around the corner, all smiles. I had e-mailed my colleagues there that I’d be in a bit later than usual on a Friday… “around 2:30 after some errands and lunch” and here I was, happily waltzing in to work about 2pm.

My colleagues, though, looked at me funny.

Finally, one said, “Google, eh? Hmm!” whereupon I recalled with quite a bit of embarrassment that I was still wearing a prominent Google Guest sticker.

Considering that there’s at least a minor rivalry between the firms, this oversight of mine wasn’t exactly the best way to win friends and influence people. Oops!