Thought help: I was invited to a hangout by my coworkers who were older than I; I am 22, and my coworkers are somewhere between 28 and 35 years old. - Help.com

This is were you need to set boundaries for yourself! You make a decision that you won’t smoke or something else you don’t care to try and stick to it. So the next time you are in a situation and something is taking place just politly say “No thank you!” and be done with it! Don’t feel pressured because everyone their is doing it and you don’t want to! Sometimes you will have to be stronger in saying no. But you will feel better about yourself and after awhile ppl will now that you mean no! If you go with them again go to mingle and get to know your co workers but don’t partake in something you don’t like. I like what okei wrote to!

Really! I have seen you around here just never had a chance to chat! Glad we met!

okei! wrote:

nolateri wrote:
This is were you need to set boundaries for yourself! You make a decision that you won’t smoke or something else you don’t care to try and stick to it. So the next time you are in a situation and something is taking place just politly say “No thank you!” and be done with it! Don’t feel pressured because everyone their is doing it and you don’t want to! Sometimes you will have to be stronger in saying no. But you will feel better about yourself and after awhile ppl will now that you mean no! If you go with them again go to mingle and get to know your co workers but don’t partake in something you don’t like. I like what okei wrote to!

thanks *winks* i still have my common sense thank God. this is the first time i saw u here nolateri (what a name)

Well, they are friendly. Age shouldn’t be important, if you like them and want them as friends, hang out with them. You are not anymore a child, so you shouldn’t develop an ‘they are older kids, and they will bully me’ syndrome. They are having fun, smoking and drinking, that is, but they are enjoying themselves. You have all the right in the world to refuse smoking and drinking alcohol, but you can drink beverages without alcohol, and don’t smoke, and yet hang out with them and have fun. If they see that you are comfortable with them they might understand. I understand your situation because I am at the other end of your situation. I am over thirty, my co-workers are between 27 and 40, and we have this 20 year old kid, who calls everybody Sir, and Maam, and is very respectful, and even afraid of us, and very shy, and doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, yet we do, he feels awkward around us, yet we keep involving him to hang around with us, he refuses most of the time, well, it’s his decision, but we will not ignore him because he wants to be ignored. He’s one of us, part of the crew, where everybody is equal, we are all friends, hey, we work together, spend most of the day at work together, we are a community, part of each other’s life whether we want it or not, we could as well be friends.

They wanted to “include” you. A nice gesture on their part. Like you, however, I don’t like to be around cigarette smoke. Is there a non-smoking area of the bar? If so, you could maybe sit there with some like-minded co-workers and drink a beer or non-alcoholic drink.

I have found that is better to enjoy being around people who do not need drugs or alcohol to enjoy their time. I’m an electrical engineer and I work with people at least 7 years older than me, so this happens a lot to me too ^^
Some people have said that they get so used to drinking alcohol while socializing that they don’t realize they enjoy their time better without it.