Well what was the point then?

You work with someone on a project. You both work quite hard but then out of the blue the project gets scrapped.

Now your colleague is at your desk to have a good moan. If your coworker gets particularly aggressive in their complaining then they’ll fire this question at you:

“Well what was the point then?”

Now if this is your first rodeo you may not realise that this is a rhetorical question. You learn the hard way that you don’t actually answer because then they would pick apart your suggestion and you don’t want that.

They know that you’re not the boss, you didn’t scrap the project. What they’re really doing is inviting you to bitch with them.

Now no good ever really came from bitching so you don’t want to take the bait. You want to try and defuse their anger.

So I like to go for a Gallic shrug, with an ‘I don’t know’ and just sit there with it. Let it get really awkward if needs be, but don’t take the bait.

Do not take the bait! It’s not worth it!