If I'm in a room with people I know and I plan to leave the room for a long time, I tell them where I'm going. If it's for a short time I do not.
What (if anything) is an appropriate time scale to leave a room without announcing when/if you'll be back?
Like yeah maybe it kind of depends what environment and what people you're talking about. When I'm in the waiting room at the bus station I don't tell anyone anything about where I'm going or how long I'm going to be gone because it's not their business. And when I'm leaving work to go home at 4:30 or whatever, I say goodbye, and I don't tell people that I'll be back tomorrow at 8:30, because it's kind of obvious unless it's the weekend and then it's still kind of obvious. So what are you even talking about? I'm just not following.
in social circles with unknown people (a bar for example), it is common curtesey to stand up, raise a glass and shout in full volume "I'm going to the shitter, yo!" before doing exactly that
I like to avoid a social faux pas in this situation and just shit my pants.
I tend to never tell people and just be like « cya » because it’s not their business.
My girlfriend would be very unhappy with me I spontaneously left for a couple of days in this way.
"Alright, see ya later, babe!"
finally shows up after five years
"I said 'later'"
There's this saying "this isn't an airport, no need to announce your departure". So unless there's an actual need for people to know where I am going and/or why, there's no point in telling them.
If the people in the room are your close friends, that's a different question though.
I don't announce it, and clearly nobody cares.
Just once somebody told me, confused, "I never seen you leave, but I am seeing you come here for like 5th time. Are you jumping out of the window?" (no), and someone else just noted "Yeah, I've noticed that too."
Do you think they might have expectations? If so, be considerate. If not, skip the announcement part and just go without saying a word.
Example: There’s a family gathering, and you’re expecting to have lunch within the next 30 minutes. Everyone expects you to be there in the same table. If you need to go put out a fire of some sort, you’ll just say that you need to take care of something urgent and you’ll be back within the same day.
Let’s say your cousin crashed their car on a tree, and you need to pull it back on the road with a tractor. It’s going to take a few hours to do it, so you’ll just grab a sandwich and some apple juice before you go. Let everyone know that it’s going to take a while.
If it’s a shorter thing, like getting some more milk from the local supermarket, there’s no need to announce anything. Just go, get some stuff done, and come back in time for lunch.
