Avoid Lunchroom Food Fights

The happy usually find comfort in abstaining from any lunch-hour debates.

However, they may be so sick of the culture wars that they want to stick it to the Granola Man by bringing their Chilean sea bass or veal cutlets to work only when they're smothered in nice, smelly onions or dripping pan juices onto the shelves below.

Even if they're not angry about the hempen harping, the happy know that by taking a little time out for themselves at midday, they can rejoin the rest of the working world with plenty of gas in their tanks. To them, that's empowering.

Both sides think they're right. Both can even feel a sense of righteous indignation, even of divine protection. And guess what? Both are right.

Kitchen Aids

To the smug, Miss Conduct points out that the opportune moment is more important than an airtight argument.

The time to make your dietary case is not after someone has taken a bite out of something you wish they hadn't. What are they supposed to do if they agree? Spit it out? So please, stop lecturing and pass the high-fructose-corn-syrup-sweetened, artificially tomato-flavored ketchup so that your happy colleagues can really enjoy their trans-fat-laden freedom fries. They've earned it.

To the happy, Miss Conduct underlines that changing the world starts within the individual, and any kind of change is difficult when so many thousands of advertising images are working against it every day.