Free food at work brings out a bizarre greed
March 5, 2019 8:43 AM Subscribe
The Guy Who Hid Tacos in His Desk Drawer - why do people go so nuts over free food at work? In which Alison Green of Ask A Manager asks the question, but does not provide an answer.
This is not a recent phenomenon. For my day job, I wrote piece about a family fish camp in Western North Carolina last fall for their 60th anniversary. They used to cater the annual employee picnic for a nearby (now defunct) paper mill. On those days, they would have so many people lining up for "to-go" orders of fried chicken and trout that the cooks once famously had to leave halfway through and basically buy up all the chicken from the supermarkets in four counties. The restaurant knew that a lot of the millworkers were poor and trying to feed their families for several days off the picnic fare, so they felt bad cutting people off. Eventually it was decided that people could take no more than ten "takeout" orders from the company picnic at a time.
posted by thivaia at 8:52 AM on March 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 8:52 AM on March 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
It's a combo of "people like free stuff" and "people don't actually like working all that much so anything that kills time is valued".
posted by Automocar at 8:52 AM on March 5, 2019 [32 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 8:52 AM on March 5, 2019 [32 favorites]
I mean outside of the obvious day to day economic struggles that some people face, one thing that comes to mind is that this is a way for 'CORPORATE' or 'HEADOFFICE' to show they're good and kind employers who care about their employees.
My partner and I were discussing this some while ago (we both work for larger corporations) and we felt like there's something infantilizing about these kinds of office treats/lunches/foods.
You know what'd rather have than free cake or 'Taco Tuesdays', better pay or more time off or work conditions that don't make me feel like a small child whose every move is being watched and scrutinized.
But sure, free cake, why not.
*sighs*
posted by Fizz at 8:54 AM on March 5, 2019 [42 favorites]
My partner and I were discussing this some while ago (we both work for larger corporations) and we felt like there's something infantilizing about these kinds of office treats/lunches/foods.
You know what'd rather have than free cake or 'Taco Tuesdays', better pay or more time off or work conditions that don't make me feel like a small child whose every move is being watched and scrutinized.
But sure, free cake, why not.
*sighs*
posted by Fizz at 8:54 AM on March 5, 2019 [42 favorites]
> They complained so much about being denied more than one cookie that cookie day ended up stopping permanently.
I'm continually amazed by how much less many people value their dignity than, say, a free cookie.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:58 AM on March 5, 2019 [30 favorites]
I'm continually amazed by how much less many people value their dignity than, say, a free cookie.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:58 AM on March 5, 2019 [30 favorites]
Wow.
I'm a Starving Graduate Student™ and I enjoy free food. When there's free food in my department, you have to grab some quickly, or else it will be gone. But no one acts like this? No one hoards more than their fair share. No one takes stacks of leftover pastries to their desk so no one else can get any.
That's just kind of ... appalling behavior, really. Soul-killing job or not, you should still be considerate to others around you. But maybe their souls are just dead.
Corporate life is looking like it will be ... fun.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:59 AM on March 5, 2019 [19 favorites]
I'm a Starving Graduate Student™ and I enjoy free food. When there's free food in my department, you have to grab some quickly, or else it will be gone. But no one acts like this? No one hoards more than their fair share. No one takes stacks of leftover pastries to their desk so no one else can get any.
That's just kind of ... appalling behavior, really. Soul-killing job or not, you should still be considerate to others around you. But maybe their souls are just dead.
Corporate life is looking like it will be ... fun.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:59 AM on March 5, 2019 [19 favorites]
My cubicle is right next to a conference room where sandwiches etc. are delivered almost daily for meetings. There are people in the other building who watch the room schedule so they know when there's a meeting at lunchtime, and come all the way over to vulture over the table in hopes of getting free leftovers. (They circle around my area and I say "they should be done soon.") I don't know what it is about engineer guys and free food, but it's a huge thing here. Nothing is wasted, so that's good.
posted by Melismata at 9:01 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 9:01 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
The most humane place I have ever worked was also the only place where I saw this "perk" handled well - it was a small-ish local startup with in-house manufacturing and warehouse staff, and by unspoken rule the food was basically entirely for the folks who worked on the shop floor, to get a solid breakfast before their shift started or to grab a piece of fruit during their break or something. They were definitely appreciative of it (without the entitlement shown in the FPP) and the office staff would occasionally roll by and grab an apple or something, nbd. There was a lot I didn't like about that job but on reflection everyone was really decent.
Now I work in a place where everyone around me can ABSOLUTELY afford to buy their own goddamn bottles of fizzy water, and yet I see people literally filling their knapsacks at the fridge on their way out the door. 🤷🏻♀️ Dude, you're going to be back here in 12ish hours anyway, why do you need so much fizzy water at home?!
posted by btfreek at 9:02 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Now I work in a place where everyone around me can ABSOLUTELY afford to buy their own goddamn bottles of fizzy water, and yet I see people literally filling their knapsacks at the fridge on their way out the door. 🤷🏻♀️ Dude, you're going to be back here in 12ish hours anyway, why do you need so much fizzy water at home?!
posted by btfreek at 9:02 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Early in my career, I worked for an organization that provided free bagels and cream cheese on Wednesday mornings. It’s no exaggeration to say it was the highlight of the week for many of us.
I used to work in an office where people were pretty bored and a lot of people seemed unhappy and MAN. That place had the strongest greed-for-free-food culture of any place I've ever worked. I felt it too. I was super understimulated there and free food was like a) "Hooray, something to break up the boredom!" and b) "Hooray, something mildly pleasurable in the midst of this unpleasant day!" Also sometimes there were free breakfast tacos one of our vendors would send as a corporate gift (this was in Austin), and that was the BEST because I usually had rolled out of bed and skipped breakfast. ...Man, that job was really not the awesomest.
posted by aka burlap at 9:02 AM on March 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
I used to work in an office where people were pretty bored and a lot of people seemed unhappy and MAN. That place had the strongest greed-for-free-food culture of any place I've ever worked. I felt it too. I was super understimulated there and free food was like a) "Hooray, something to break up the boredom!" and b) "Hooray, something mildly pleasurable in the midst of this unpleasant day!" Also sometimes there were free breakfast tacos one of our vendors would send as a corporate gift (this was in Austin), and that was the BEST because I usually had rolled out of bed and skipped breakfast. ...Man, that job was really not the awesomest.
posted by aka burlap at 9:02 AM on March 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
I do not come from a work culture that generally offers free food - my very first job out of college had a coffee maker, but since then (going on... 11 years since that job, sheesh) there hasn't been much. My last company occasionally offered free lunches at trainings or customer meetings but a) those conference rooms were generally really far out of the way and b) they were extremely efficient about ordering.
My current job has the occasional treat (free cupcakes or cookies for random "holidays"like Engineers Day, catered "pep rally" lunch when the Pats and Sox won their playoffs, plus an annual gala) but I have never seen the kind of societal breakdowns described in the article. Hell, my manager will bring in cookies or other treats for group meetings occasionally and he has to beg people to take them off his hands!
On the other hand, my wife's company offers free pizza on paydays. Their new manager started asking why they were "wasting" so much money every other week, and cut the pizza budget. The way she described it, there were near riots when the food ran out. And they're all so overworked and underpaid right now, trying to save fifty bucks every other week on free food really just tanked morale even farther than it had already sunk.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:03 AM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
My current job has the occasional treat (free cupcakes or cookies for random "holidays"like Engineers Day, catered "pep rally" lunch when the Pats and Sox won their playoffs, plus an annual gala) but I have never seen the kind of societal breakdowns described in the article. Hell, my manager will bring in cookies or other treats for group meetings occasionally and he has to beg people to take them off his hands!
On the other hand, my wife's company offers free pizza on paydays. Their new manager started asking why they were "wasting" so much money every other week, and cut the pizza budget. The way she described it, there were near riots when the food ran out. And they're all so overworked and underpaid right now, trying to save fifty bucks every other week on free food really just tanked morale even farther than it had already sunk.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:03 AM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
Also, this is super appropriate: 'Office Pretzel Day' [YouTube]
posted by Fizz at 9:04 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 9:04 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
It is weird. I don't think that I've taken more than my share of food at work, and a lot of the time I would just figure that it's not worth the hassle and I could buy my own bagel later, but I've definitely eaten plates of food that I would never touch if it weren't work food. Like, I never, ever buy Papa John's-like pizza, but I've eaten multiple slices of leftover pizza at work. Those big bland supermarket cookies? Never buy them, but they're hard to resist at work.
Sadly, I now work in a group where people actually bring delicious stuff to share so while I'm no longer mystified about why I eat it, I also seldom turn it down.
posted by Frowner at 9:05 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Sadly, I now work in a group where people actually bring delicious stuff to share so while I'm no longer mystified about why I eat it, I also seldom turn it down.
posted by Frowner at 9:05 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Someone in the comments made the very insightful point that office food can serve as a way for people to meet emotional needs when they're not feeling appreciated at work. You better believe I drank three La Croixs a day at my old toxic job (and frankly, my satellite office fought for our snack budget and aggressively ordered expensive stuff because we felt neglected by the New York office. Like it was pretty much a direct line.)
At my first job out of college (which was NOT toxic), I distinctly remember the moment when I realized I was an adult making a livable salary and didn't need to dive for any food that was offered to me. I was eating a rapidly melting popsicle at my desk.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:12 AM on March 5, 2019 [38 favorites]
At my first job out of college (which was NOT toxic), I distinctly remember the moment when I realized I was an adult making a livable salary and didn't need to dive for any food that was offered to me. I was eating a rapidly melting popsicle at my desk.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:12 AM on March 5, 2019 [38 favorites]
I'm usually the one in my team to find free food or leftovers and then I report it back to co-workers. Sometimes I don't even take any for myself, I just do it because I like having the opportunity to hone my office foraging skills!
posted by FJT at 9:13 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by FJT at 9:13 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
I would suspect that many of the more extreme examples of crappy behaviour outlined in this article and thread are at least in part symptoms of toxic work environments manifesting themselves as microaggressions or coping mechanisms. You're angry at a co-worker so you want to make sure you get more cookies than they do, with the best-case scenario being that they don't get any cookies at all. Or you're angry at management, so when they put out a tray of sandwiches you wolf down as many as you can because you might as well get *something* of value from those jerks. And so on and so forth.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [44 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [44 favorites]
I used to work in a warehouse where occasionally the owner/manager would buy us all a couple of pizzas, usually on a day when a big container of product had to be unloaded. Everybody was generally equitable about how much pizza they got, to the point that there was always about three slices left into the afternoon. At the same time, the amount of "good-natured, joking" food policing was astonishing. People ragged on each other for taking a second slice (even though there was more than enough), sometimes even while in the physical act of taking a second slice themselves. It was weird.
posted by gauche at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by gauche at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
I should add that I was not, myself, entirely above participating in said food-policing, which feels weird to admit.
posted by gauche at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by gauche at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
Food is a super primal thing, and people tend to feel strongly about it.
In my view, every organization should have a freefood email list or similar. The cultural norm ought to be that food not on that list is for individuals to feed themselves during events, and if it's listed, it's fair game to collect for your household or whatever. This also lets employees distribute non-food-bank-grade surplus amongst themselves, e.g. bread before Passover and Halloween candy.
Occasionally, stockpiling of free work food is about (real or perceived) lack of time, not lack of money. I have definitely had the money to get my own food and chronically forgotten to bring or eat it, and I perceive that kind of brain stuff as widespread in engineers.
posted by bagel at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
In my view, every organization should have a freefood email list or similar. The cultural norm ought to be that food not on that list is for individuals to feed themselves during events, and if it's listed, it's fair game to collect for your household or whatever. This also lets employees distribute non-food-bank-grade surplus amongst themselves, e.g. bread before Passover and Halloween candy.
Occasionally, stockpiling of free work food is about (real or perceived) lack of time, not lack of money. I have definitely had the money to get my own food and chronically forgotten to bring or eat it, and I perceive that kind of brain stuff as widespread in engineers.
posted by bagel at 9:14 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Personally I find it ridiculous how many people in the workplace are food driven. Like a dog, lol! I myself could care less. I rarely participate in the free food that is at meetings and whatnot, usually because I find the quality to not be that great since they are ordering for large groups. Also I'm just not a food driven kind of person so food isn't a way to motivate me. Give me some extra time off instead.
posted by KingBoogly at 9:16 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by KingBoogly at 9:16 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I live in Minnesota but I’m not from here, so I just wait patiently and then grab the last doughnut/cookie/slice of pizza that everyone else is too polite to take. It’s a good system.
posted by padraigin at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2019 [42 favorites]
posted by padraigin at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2019 [42 favorites]
In my experience, in restaurants, if the staff is given family meal or a post-shift drink (which lots of places do daily or at least weekly), there's a lot of social pressure for each person to clean their plate and/or finish their drink. Each person is given X share and they will finish it, and if there are leftovers then they're divided among the staff who want seconds, and then anything else will be thrown away.
In offices, people just seem much more "everyone for himself!" about sharing food. It's like a melee. I don't get why they're so excited, they can just sit there and eat at their desks basically whenever they want?
Nowadays, I'm not big into work snacks (basically never partake) but my office can tear my morning coffees out of my cold dead hands.
posted by rue72 at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2019
In offices, people just seem much more "everyone for himself!" about sharing food. It's like a melee. I don't get why they're so excited, they can just sit there and eat at their desks basically whenever they want?
Nowadays, I'm not big into work snacks (basically never partake) but my office can tear my morning coffees out of my cold dead hands.
posted by rue72 at 9:17 AM on March 5, 2019
My company must be an anomoly. Free food is common, pizza, doughnuts, macarons, burgers grilled out back, Costco chicken caeser salads, Dickie's BBQ, tacos, teriyaki, Ezells chicken, Wingdome and on and on. The problem is that few people eat it and the amount that sits around stinking up the place and eventually getting thrown out is usually well more than the amount consumed.
posted by bz at 9:18 AM on March 5, 2019
posted by bz at 9:18 AM on March 5, 2019
Every place I've previously worked unexpected overtime was accompanied by food. Most people bagged their lunch and there was the understanding that not feeding people reduces their output. Besides asking people to skip/delay dinner to save the companies bacon (otherwise why are we here) was mean spirited at best.
Current employer doesn't do this and it is amazingly infuriating. Dude, I just worked a 13 hour day to save the company at least 15K dollars plus avoided ill will on one of the busiest days of the year; the least you could do is throw a sandwich my way. The corp runs several food outlets; it would cost you practically nothing.
posted by Mitheral at 9:18 AM on March 5, 2019 [14 favorites]
Current employer doesn't do this and it is amazingly infuriating. Dude, I just worked a 13 hour day to save the company at least 15K dollars plus avoided ill will on one of the busiest days of the year; the least you could do is throw a sandwich my way. The corp runs several food outlets; it would cost you practically nothing.
posted by Mitheral at 9:18 AM on March 5, 2019 [14 favorites]
Wow. Of all the issues I had with the very bro-y tech company I used to work at, this was not one of them. We had the free bagel thing one day a week, and while you had to get there earlyish to get the better cream cheese flavors or avocado or the asiago bagels, no one was taking whole avocados or 10 bagels at a time. (Now, 8 hours later when I left for home, I would often grab some of the leftovers before they got thrown away. But I didn't see bagel hoarding.)
Current, way better, job has great (though fattening) snacks, and also Topo Chicos. I definitely took advantage and ate a snack a day when I started, but I've gotten over that now. I've yet to see anyone hoarding Topos. I wonder if it has to do with how often they're replenished? I guess you could be taking them for home, but there's a constant supply of snacks here.
I will now admit that I have a honey bun in my desk drawer. Why? Because I'd never seen one in the snack basket before, I waited a few days to see if anyone took it, no one did, and I requisitioned it. I'm saving it for a time when I am super stressed. (After I took it, a new one appeared, and it's still sitting there, so I don't feel bad.)
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:19 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
Current, way better, job has great (though fattening) snacks, and also Topo Chicos. I definitely took advantage and ate a snack a day when I started, but I've gotten over that now. I've yet to see anyone hoarding Topos. I wonder if it has to do with how often they're replenished? I guess you could be taking them for home, but there's a constant supply of snacks here.
I will now admit that I have a honey bun in my desk drawer. Why? Because I'd never seen one in the snack basket before, I waited a few days to see if anyone took it, no one did, and I requisitioned it. I'm saving it for a time when I am super stressed. (After I took it, a new one appeared, and it's still sitting there, so I don't feel bad.)
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:19 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
I used to sit next to a guy who handed out fun size candy bars to all comers. Dude had an entire drawer full of them which he replenished daily with bags and bags and bags. As a result people constantly came in to get their shovelfulls of candy. While they were there they would chatter and chatter and someone was always there. And I had a job that required long complex phone calls. It was awful, but because people get so nuts about free food I didn't dare say a word.
I eventually got management to move my desk. Seriously who can sit next to that, day after day?
posted by elizilla at 9:22 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I eventually got management to move my desk. Seriously who can sit next to that, day after day?
posted by elizilla at 9:22 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
growing up poor, then working in an office means:
- free food (instead of slightly more pay) is a perk because a lot of people feel guilty spending on themselves. You would just pack a lunch and save the money for your family. when you get a free sandwich or whatever from some place you probably wouldn't have bought from, it really feels like something extra
- food is hard to pass up if you come from a background where food was kind of scarce. even if you don't need it right then, your old patterns kick in, back when you knew it was a bad idea to pass on this meal or snack.
posted by mulligan at 9:29 AM on March 5, 2019 [20 favorites]
- free food (instead of slightly more pay) is a perk because a lot of people feel guilty spending on themselves. You would just pack a lunch and save the money for your family. when you get a free sandwich or whatever from some place you probably wouldn't have bought from, it really feels like something extra
- food is hard to pass up if you come from a background where food was kind of scarce. even if you don't need it right then, your old patterns kick in, back when you knew it was a bad idea to pass on this meal or snack.
posted by mulligan at 9:29 AM on March 5, 2019 [20 favorites]
This reminds me of a video from The Conan Show from a few years where he busts a group of employees who only share information about free food with one another using a secret "foodies" e-mail list. I don't know how much is unscripted and how much is staged but it's pretty funny and a tiny bit sad and embarrassing.
posted by ElKevbo at 9:29 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by ElKevbo at 9:29 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
I worked at [huge international tech company] for the better part of a decade and the amount of "free" food I saw go to waste was astonishing. The execs and sales folk, for the most part, wouldn't deign to eat it (too sub-par, I suppose)...and we're talking decent food. It never ceases to amaze me how many mountains of chicken salad wraps were thrown away because they had been left out in a conference room for six hours after the meeting had ended.
posted by Token Meme at 9:30 AM on March 5, 2019
posted by Token Meme at 9:30 AM on March 5, 2019
Personally I find it ridiculous how many people in the workplace are food driven. Like a dog, lol!
Yes, I too am baffled by the amazing link between one of the most basic needs of biological organisms and the behavior of said organisms.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [46 favorites]
Yes, I too am baffled by the amazing link between one of the most basic needs of biological organisms and the behavior of said organisms.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [46 favorites]
→ symptoms of toxic work environments manifesting themselves as microaggressions or coping mechanisms
bingo! That one there. When work is shitty, people act shittily. I suspect that one place I've worked monitored dissatisfaction over free food: management were happy as long as anger was slightly below blazing torches and pitchforks, but if everyone was happy in the food line, someone was getting fired to keep people scared and busy.
For the unsealed excess food in desk drawers brigade, I have one word: roaches. Another workplace of mine had faced a major downsizing a few months before I started, and people were marched out without clearing their desks. Open a drawer and man, did those little roaches scamper.
posted by scruss at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
bingo! That one there. When work is shitty, people act shittily. I suspect that one place I've worked monitored dissatisfaction over free food: management were happy as long as anger was slightly below blazing torches and pitchforks, but if everyone was happy in the food line, someone was getting fired to keep people scared and busy.
For the unsealed excess food in desk drawers brigade, I have one word: roaches. Another workplace of mine had faced a major downsizing a few months before I started, and people were marched out without clearing their desks. Open a drawer and man, did those little roaches scamper.
posted by scruss at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
I have various food "issues"... eat too fast, too much (bad at portion control) and am a sucker for a buffet/AYCA... when I move to a new city, I will *know* where all the buffet/AYCE places are within days... (and then plan my eventual visits). Thankfully, I am getting over all these - slowly.
However... I have worked for various sized organizations over the decades, and I still don't get "food vultures" eagerly awaiting the picked-over, half-wilted post-meeting food trays - the soggy sandwiches, the fruit about to go off, the undercooked - or stale - cookies. The snacks well past their expiry dates in the break room - even people stealing food from the fridge/freezer... The line-ups for birthday cake days (some organizations just lump everyone into a single monthly event for efficiency).
These were all highly paid office staff - who, at the prospect of "free food" loose all sense of decorum and dignity.
(Don't get me started on those who don't understand an "open bar" at office parties either... I saw someone almost fall off a boat and had to be rescued by a very "C-level" executive - talk about your major CLM... (career limiting maneuver)
posted by jkaczor at 9:33 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
However... I have worked for various sized organizations over the decades, and I still don't get "food vultures" eagerly awaiting the picked-over, half-wilted post-meeting food trays - the soggy sandwiches, the fruit about to go off, the undercooked - or stale - cookies. The snacks well past their expiry dates in the break room - even people stealing food from the fridge/freezer... The line-ups for birthday cake days (some organizations just lump everyone into a single monthly event for efficiency).
These were all highly paid office staff - who, at the prospect of "free food" loose all sense of decorum and dignity.
(Don't get me started on those who don't understand an "open bar" at office parties either... I saw someone almost fall off a boat and had to be rescued by a very "C-level" executive - talk about your major CLM... (career limiting maneuver)
posted by jkaczor at 9:33 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is unlike anything I've ever experienced. We have to beg people to take leftover food home so it won't go to waste. Even students usually refuse. It takes free department-provided containers and repeated encouragement to avoid throwing away half of every workplace meal.
posted by eotvos at 9:34 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 9:34 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
I used to be the office manager for a software startup (later we got acquired and became a local office of Massive Global Company) and we did the leftovers after meetings and catered Wednesday lunches and also a "produce refrigerator" with fresh produce for employees...that kind of morphed into a "snack refrigerator" after a year or so when I got sick of dumping out barely-touched lettuce and carrots week after week. On Fridays before a long holiday weekend I'd invite people to stop by and take home produce, because it'd go bad before the office reopened again.
Happily most people were pretty classy about the whole setup. No one took food home but I did have to send out a few emails asking people to not hoard bananas or peaches at their desks waiting for them to ripen. My most popular act as office manager was to create a Twitter account for the break room, and I'd send out an alert if leftover meeting food or snacks were available, along with updates on what was for lunch that week. I got more followers on it than my civilian Twitter account.
Now I work for a public university, and while everyone is still pretty polite and civilized about free food, I can confirm that leaving leftovers out for graduate students is kind of like that scene in The Mummy where a swarm of cursed beetles descends on a person and reduces it to a skeleton in seconds.
posted by castlebravo at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2019 [13 favorites]
Happily most people were pretty classy about the whole setup. No one took food home but I did have to send out a few emails asking people to not hoard bananas or peaches at their desks waiting for them to ripen. My most popular act as office manager was to create a Twitter account for the break room, and I'd send out an alert if leftover meeting food or snacks were available, along with updates on what was for lunch that week. I got more followers on it than my civilian Twitter account.
Now I work for a public university, and while everyone is still pretty polite and civilized about free food, I can confirm that leaving leftovers out for graduate students is kind of like that scene in The Mummy where a swarm of cursed beetles descends on a person and reduces it to a skeleton in seconds.
posted by castlebravo at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2019 [13 favorites]
Last night, I had a physically painful craving for the coffee cake that was often included in the free Friday morning pastries at my last office.
(And yes, I often took extra and had it for lunch, too.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:38 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
(And yes, I often took extra and had it for lunch, too.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:38 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story: The Tale of The Guy Who Hid Tacos in His Desk Drawer.
posted by wordless reply at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by wordless reply at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
People are funny about free things in general. A few examples that always puzzled me are:
- Waiting in line for 45 minutes to get a free ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry's. 45 minutes is worth more than a few dollars to me.
- Enduring high heat/humidity, being crammed together cheek by jowl on a damp lawn, and needing to stake out your ground hours in advance to see a free Met Opera summer concert in Central Park with B/C-cast performers when it's possible to see a full production in the house with the top singers for less than forty bucks.
posted by slkinsey at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
- Waiting in line for 45 minutes to get a free ice cream cone at Ben & Jerry's. 45 minutes is worth more than a few dollars to me.
- Enduring high heat/humidity, being crammed together cheek by jowl on a damp lawn, and needing to stake out your ground hours in advance to see a free Met Opera summer concert in Central Park with B/C-cast performers when it's possible to see a full production in the house with the top singers for less than forty bucks.
posted by slkinsey at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
And in related news: There Is a Free Lunch, After All. It’s at the Office. (NYT)
Free food has been a formidable presence in the American workplace since the 1990s, when Bloomberg and tech start-ups like Google began to put out snacks in hopes of making employees happier or healthier, more productive and less likely to stray far from the task at hand.posted by Little Dawn at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
But today, the practice is almost obligatory, as businesses go to extraordinary lengths to provide food without charge, or at a sharp discount. The offerings have grown in size, scope and specificity — some tailored to a company’s mission, others unwittingly reflective of it and still others that seem oddly random.
We have a Slack channel for free food and invariably, the food is gone before the post even goes up. I don't know how many times I've seen the post, walked to the kitchen only to find crumbs in an empty donut box.
posted by octothorpe at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
$40 is lot of money for some of us.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2019 [28 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2019 [28 favorites]
People are funny about free things in general.
Heh... you just made me remember... "free pancake breakfasts" during/prior to the Calgary stampede...
People would go day after day to different hosts/venues, wait hours for their "free breakfast" - yes - it is a a fun, local tradition - but I am sorry, maybe when I retire and have nothing better to do, I will wait hours for undercooked pancake goo, and bad bacon/sausages. (However - I did go to alot of private corporate Stampede parties - sometimes breakfasts, where one did not have to wait hours... so...)
posted by jkaczor at 9:45 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Heh... you just made me remember... "free pancake breakfasts" during/prior to the Calgary stampede...
People would go day after day to different hosts/venues, wait hours for their "free breakfast" - yes - it is a a fun, local tradition - but I am sorry, maybe when I retire and have nothing better to do, I will wait hours for undercooked pancake goo, and bad bacon/sausages. (However - I did go to alot of private corporate Stampede parties - sometimes breakfasts, where one did not have to wait hours... so...)
posted by jkaczor at 9:45 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have a candy dish by my desk, I fill it from my own (personal) budget, and that's on me. It's there for my colleagues who swing by, yes daily sometimes, but it's a nicety I've done my whole career and it's never really gotten out of control. There've been a handful of abusers but I'll just make it disappear for a few days, and if someone has the nerve to ask about it (or complain about candy choices), I remind them that it's something I pay for out of pocket, and I just haven't had time to stock up outside of day after Halloween/Christmas/Valentine/Easter sales. The marked difference is when people realize that it's _me_ - a coworker, often someone who makes less than they do - paying for it, versus "the man" - our company. I don't expense it. I could I suppose. But I also know that most of the abusers who fill their pockets with Dum-Dums think they're sticking it to the man. *shrug* If a Dum-Dum makes you feel like you're sticking it to our multimillionaire CEO, more power to you.
That said, when there are catered lunches in the conference rooms, the statement I keep hearing is "take it back to the offices, because if it stays here the cleaning people will just take it." To which I always say "good, dude, you're making six figures, and they're cleaning up our messes. They deserve that soggy chicken wrap more than you do."
We did have a scandal where someone was taking the coffee accoutrements home for a family member's coffee business. Which was hopefully a one off, because sure, I'm confident we all use the copier for personal business, but it's another thing all together to supply a family member's business venture with second hand Splenda.
posted by librarianamy at 9:47 AM on March 5, 2019 [15 favorites]
That said, when there are catered lunches in the conference rooms, the statement I keep hearing is "take it back to the offices, because if it stays here the cleaning people will just take it." To which I always say "good, dude, you're making six figures, and they're cleaning up our messes. They deserve that soggy chicken wrap more than you do."
We did have a scandal where someone was taking the coffee accoutrements home for a family member's coffee business. Which was hopefully a one off, because sure, I'm confident we all use the copier for personal business, but it's another thing all together to supply a family member's business venture with second hand Splenda.
posted by librarianamy at 9:47 AM on March 5, 2019 [15 favorites]
I far prefer the Biglaw/finance approach, which is Seamless if you stay past a certain time or work holidays/weekends. No fighting, no sharing, no weird leftover sandwiches. My firm also had a cafeteria at which you could use the same budget. I didn't bother maximizing on Seamless, usually, but the cafeteria had small items like granola bars and fruit that I would usually round out a meal up there with.
For big collective projects, there was food-ordering, but since doc review no longer involves everybody sitting in a big room going through boxes it's much less needed. Except at trial. Oh god, the trial food situation...
posted by praemunire at 9:48 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
For big collective projects, there was food-ordering, but since doc review no longer involves everybody sitting in a big room going through boxes it's much less needed. Except at trial. Oh god, the trial food situation...
posted by praemunire at 9:48 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
One of my earliest startup jobs (between the 2001 and 08 crashes) catered our monthly all hands staff meetings and we learned to divine the financial health of our company by what the catering setup was. Pastries from Au Bon Pain were baseline. Croissants and muffins from Bread & Circus / Whole Foods were good news. A Dunkin Donuts munchkins box was UGH brace yourselves everyone.
Now I work for a big tech company with crazy growth and we have multiple snack stations, beer taps and bowls of fruit; but I still have this instinct for divining the current health of the company by whether the snack boxes are stacked with Milano cookies or Lay's potato chips
posted by bl1nk at 9:48 AM on March 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
Now I work for a big tech company with crazy growth and we have multiple snack stations, beer taps and bowls of fruit; but I still have this instinct for divining the current health of the company by whether the snack boxes are stacked with Milano cookies or Lay's potato chips
posted by bl1nk at 9:48 AM on March 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
Also, my sister works at [tech company] and she tells me they put the healthy snacks at eye-level and make the good stuff difficult to reach. Fuck that noise! Why do Millennials accept such things? I would be eating the nastiest flavor of Doritos just out of spite.
posted by praemunire at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also, a colleague left last month and as we were cleaning out his desk for the next warm body to take it, we uncovered at least an entire grocery bag worth of stashed roasted almond bags in his desk drawers. We rehomed those snacks into their natural snack box habitat but it was still a haunting reminder of how he channeled his anxieties and dwindling influence into hoarding food.
posted by bl1nk at 9:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by bl1nk at 9:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
We did have a scandal where someone was taking the coffee accoutrements home for a family member's coffee business.
We rehomed those snacks into their natural snack box habitat but it was still a haunting reminder of how he channeled his anxieties and dwindling influence into hoarding food.
'Stick it to corporate America': why we are so willing to steal from work (Guardian)
We rehomed those snacks into their natural snack box habitat but it was still a haunting reminder of how he channeled his anxieties and dwindling influence into hoarding food.
'Stick it to corporate America': why we are so willing to steal from work (Guardian)
Lisa Penney, an associate professor at USF Sarasota-Manatee and a specialist in counterproductive work behavior, said organizational justice plays a significant role in workplace theft.posted by Little Dawn at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2019 [12 favorites]
“If people feel they’re being paid unfairly, treated unfairly, meaning that procedures, decisions about promotions, are not being administered fairly without bias, if they feel they are being disrespected by their supervisors: all of these things can factor into employee theft,” she says.
When workers are under stress and feel like they cannot control their work environment, she says they might withhold effort, take long breaks or steal to try to regain some power. [...]
Occupational property theft is nothing new. It’s a phenomenon with literally ancient roots. In their article Employee Theft as a Social Exchange Process, researchers Jerald Greenberg and Kimberly S Scott cite Egyptian papyri describing scribes stealing fabric and grain from temple storage.
But this latest spike is probably down to increased job insecurity, said Dr Yannick Griep, assistant professor at the University of Calgary and an expert in industrial and organizational psychology.
Despite buoyant employment rates, for many Americans stagnant wages and the gig economy are contributing to a mounting sense of uncertainty. “If you no longer perceive that your job is secure, which is very common in the gig economy … you’re more likely to get the idea of free-for-all,” Griep said.
I work with engineers, who I know for a fact are making more than me, and those guys do the vulture circling thing and I want to yell OHMYGOD JUST GO OUT FOR THE FANCY STEAKS YOU CAN DEFINITELY AFFORD because, man. A soggy sandwich or a bag of chips is just not worth that kind of effort.
I get rushing for desserts, because they are delicious and fun, but random lunch leftovers, it is a mystery.
posted by emjaybee at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I get rushing for desserts, because they are delicious and fun, but random lunch leftovers, it is a mystery.
posted by emjaybee at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
but my office can tear my morning coffees out of my cold dead hands
Heh - so, I worked for a company once that had a headquarters with about 9,000 staff in a single building, spread through many many floors. They were doing a big office re-design - and decided that the break rooms no longer needed to provide free coffee - because, it was a costly waste of money. And - in that same building, on the ground-level and first-floor there were three places staff could go to buy a coffee.
How do you think that worked out for "efficiency" and "productivity"? Hundreds of people lined-up at any given point in the day - all day, every day for 5-days a week, waiting on average 20-30 minutes to get their coffee...
Dumbass management... (The cynic in me wonders how many senior staff invested in, or owned those commercial coffee shop franchises outright?)
posted by jkaczor at 10:06 AM on March 5, 2019 [17 favorites]
Heh - so, I worked for a company once that had a headquarters with about 9,000 staff in a single building, spread through many many floors. They were doing a big office re-design - and decided that the break rooms no longer needed to provide free coffee - because, it was a costly waste of money. And - in that same building, on the ground-level and first-floor there were three places staff could go to buy a coffee.
How do you think that worked out for "efficiency" and "productivity"? Hundreds of people lined-up at any given point in the day - all day, every day for 5-days a week, waiting on average 20-30 minutes to get their coffee...
Dumbass management... (The cynic in me wonders how many senior staff invested in, or owned those commercial coffee shop franchises outright?)
posted by jkaczor at 10:06 AM on March 5, 2019 [17 favorites]
Here, in my department, we just pile snacks on top of a file cabinet. If you got snacks, you put 'em there. When you want snack, you grab snack. I really like these people. We don't get paid a ton but we share so well.
Vultures abound elsewhere though. The bank was maybe the worst, though Food Day at the tech co (mentioned already in this thread! I'll let you guess) was pretty bad. I do not miss it.
posted by wellred at 10:07 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Vultures abound elsewhere though. The bank was maybe the worst, though Food Day at the tech co (mentioned already in this thread! I'll let you guess) was pretty bad. I do not miss it.
posted by wellred at 10:07 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
And in related news: There Is a Free Lunch, After All. It’s at the Office. (NYT)
This was oddly fascinating, thanks for sharing!
Also, can we talk about the free snacks at tech companies for a sec? There's enough there to talk about all day, but the thing that's been jumping out at me lately (as a non-tech worker in San Francisco with lots of friends in tech) is just HOW PROUD tech workers are of their snacks. I have never visited a friend at their tech office without them pushing me to take snacks home. Recently I was arranging to meet a friend for a carpool to LA and trying to convince him not to go out of his way, and his response was "It's fine, this way I can swing by my office and pick up snacks." ??? Is this an extension of the food-as-the-way-companies-treat-people thing, like it's unseemly to brag about your job but at least you can make sure all your friends go home with premium coconut chips and Ito-En tea? (Or maybe they too are trying to stick it to the man?)
Also I've been going to a lot of weeknight UX meetups, eating dinner beforehand, and then being annoyed when I turn up and there's food available because why didn't they mention that in the meetup description. Only recently did I realize: they didn't mention it because it would never occur to anyone going to a UX meetup that there wouldn't be food available. Oh.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:10 AM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
This was oddly fascinating, thanks for sharing!
Also, can we talk about the free snacks at tech companies for a sec? There's enough there to talk about all day, but the thing that's been jumping out at me lately (as a non-tech worker in San Francisco with lots of friends in tech) is just HOW PROUD tech workers are of their snacks. I have never visited a friend at their tech office without them pushing me to take snacks home. Recently I was arranging to meet a friend for a carpool to LA and trying to convince him not to go out of his way, and his response was "It's fine, this way I can swing by my office and pick up snacks." ??? Is this an extension of the food-as-the-way-companies-treat-people thing, like it's unseemly to brag about your job but at least you can make sure all your friends go home with premium coconut chips and Ito-En tea? (Or maybe they too are trying to stick it to the man?)
Also I've been going to a lot of weeknight UX meetups, eating dinner beforehand, and then being annoyed when I turn up and there's food available because why didn't they mention that in the meetup description. Only recently did I realize: they didn't mention it because it would never occur to anyone going to a UX meetup that there wouldn't be food available. Oh.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:10 AM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
and then being annoyed when I turn up and there's food available because why didn't they mention that in the meetup description
Back when I was helping run a monthly usergroup, we tried and tried to get attendees to register so we could better anticipate how much pizza to order. Mainly because our organizers (and families) were getting sick of all the leftovers. But, we always made sure that we let people know we were going to feed them - this was a discussion-point in our early planning process, because some volunteers felt we shouldn't. My reasoning was - if people were going to finish work, then hang around the downtown core (because they are already parked) to stay late for a meeting, we had better feed them.
One time, I was doing a tech presentation for a 1-day seminar during the day, hosted at a very "well-to-do" hotel - and a fellow showed-up, in motorcycle chaps/jacket, etc - looking completely unkempt and out of place with the rest of the audience, and had a big breakfast.
Later, as we were about to break for lunch, hotel security staff came to me and asked if they should eject him because he couldn't possibly be employed in the tech sector.
Heh - I laughed and declined - he was the most engaged and inquisitive attendee out of all the others who were about as animated as a school of dead fish.
(Excellent free food though)
posted by jkaczor at 10:20 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Back when I was helping run a monthly usergroup, we tried and tried to get attendees to register so we could better anticipate how much pizza to order. Mainly because our organizers (and families) were getting sick of all the leftovers. But, we always made sure that we let people know we were going to feed them - this was a discussion-point in our early planning process, because some volunteers felt we shouldn't. My reasoning was - if people were going to finish work, then hang around the downtown core (because they are already parked) to stay late for a meeting, we had better feed them.
One time, I was doing a tech presentation for a 1-day seminar during the day, hosted at a very "well-to-do" hotel - and a fellow showed-up, in motorcycle chaps/jacket, etc - looking completely unkempt and out of place with the rest of the audience, and had a big breakfast.
Later, as we were about to break for lunch, hotel security staff came to me and asked if they should eject him because he couldn't possibly be employed in the tech sector.
Heh - I laughed and declined - he was the most engaged and inquisitive attendee out of all the others who were about as animated as a school of dead fish.
(Excellent free food though)
posted by jkaczor at 10:20 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
I went a little crazy on the leftover food for my first couple months at a recent employer, just because the food was so damn good. It was a media conglomerate that had a lot of guests visit to shoot interviews in various parts of the building, and there would often be good spreads from nearby restaurants laid out in hallways outside random rooms. And this being the western suburbs of Miami, it would usually be a variety of Cuban, Colombian and Venezuelan delicacies and Spanish tapas that were hard to resist. Especially the croquetas. The day they had plates of actual pata negra Jamon Iberico de bellota and nobody was eating it was the day I shed the last vestiges of dignity. I don't think anyone realized what a treasure was just sitting there in the open. I made 12 "trips" to the "bathroom" in less than an hour in order to pass by that table and rescue the precious ham without drawing too much attention.
posted by theory at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [21 favorites]
posted by theory at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2019 [21 favorites]
The Underpants Monster: $40 is lot of money for some of us.
Yes, but the intersection of (a) people who live in NYC, (b) people who have a strong interest in attending a live performance of Verdi's Nabucco, and (c) people for whom the price of the least expensive ticket to the Met represents a meaningful hardship is quite small -- which is pretty obvious from the attendees at Met in the Parks concerts (I say this as someone who was once a member of this small intersection). Suffice it to say that the vast majority of attendees could afford seats in the house and nevertheless put themselves through considerable inconvenience because the concerts in the park are free. Which goes to my point that free things, even those with relatively low value to the people receiving them, can cause people to act in unusual ways.
posted by slkinsey at 10:41 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Yes, but the intersection of (a) people who live in NYC, (b) people who have a strong interest in attending a live performance of Verdi's Nabucco, and (c) people for whom the price of the least expensive ticket to the Met represents a meaningful hardship is quite small -- which is pretty obvious from the attendees at Met in the Parks concerts (I say this as someone who was once a member of this small intersection). Suffice it to say that the vast majority of attendees could afford seats in the house and nevertheless put themselves through considerable inconvenience because the concerts in the park are free. Which goes to my point that free things, even those with relatively low value to the people receiving them, can cause people to act in unusual ways.
posted by slkinsey at 10:41 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
"'Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your free tacos.' Hmm, yeah, I'm gonna have to change that last part, aren't I?" - Karl Marx, probably.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:44 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 10:44 AM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I live in Minnesota but I’m not from here, so I just wait patiently and then grab the last doughnut/cookie/slice of pizza that everyone else is too polite to take. It’s a good system.
I too live in Minnesota but am not from here. (I'm a great fit, though, my family was as Minnesotan as you can get while living in and around Chicago.)
Anyway, I have induced everyone at my work to call the last of things the "Minnesota piece". Like, "hey, is anyone going to eat the Minnesota piece"? Or "I'm going to take the Minnesota donut if no one else wants it".
posted by Frowner at 10:54 AM on March 5, 2019 [28 favorites]
I too live in Minnesota but am not from here. (I'm a great fit, though, my family was as Minnesotan as you can get while living in and around Chicago.)
Anyway, I have induced everyone at my work to call the last of things the "Minnesota piece". Like, "hey, is anyone going to eat the Minnesota piece"? Or "I'm going to take the Minnesota donut if no one else wants it".
posted by Frowner at 10:54 AM on March 5, 2019 [28 favorites]
It's a combo of "people like free stuff" and "people don't actually like working all that much so anything that kills time is valued".
I snack more when working from the office than I do working from home, and I snack more when working from home than I do on weekends and (non-feast) holidays. So, yeah, that checks out.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:56 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I snack more when working from the office than I do working from home, and I snack more when working from home than I do on weekends and (non-feast) holidays. So, yeah, that checks out.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:56 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I get free food at my office practically every day, and haven't had to pack lunches since I started working here because of it. It's usually sandwiches or tacos left over from some meeting. It's not exactly a melee around the leftovers table, but it does go quick. I don't feel bad about timing my cafeteria visits to exactly 1 pm when I know the leftovers will show up. It's a free lunch, I mean, I'm not too posh to "vulture" for it "like a dog" (i.e. hang around the cafeteria waiting in a pointed and obvious way) if need be.
Is this really considered unseemly? I am floored by the disdain in many of these comments.
posted by MiraK at 11:05 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Is this really considered unseemly? I am floored by the disdain in many of these comments.
posted by MiraK at 11:05 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
There was a woman in my office who was so shameless she would actually sneak into lunches that other building tenants had brought in for their own clients. She would just go and stand on line at their buffet as though she had every right to do it, and sometimes she would bring an entourage. Finally one of the tenants caught on and complained about it to our facilities guy. I would be absolutely mortified if I got caught doing that (and I wouldn't do it in the first place); when the facilities guy went to talk to the woman and tell her to cut it out, she actually was indignant that he was bothering her about it.
For a lot of people, it's just a straight-up sense of entitlement.
posted by holborne at 11:06 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
For a lot of people, it's just a straight-up sense of entitlement.
posted by holborne at 11:06 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
jkaczor: "Heh - so, I worked for a company once that had a headquarters with about 9,000 staff in a single building, spread through many many floors. They were doing a big office re-design - and decided that the break rooms no longer needed to provide free coffee - because, it was a costly waste of money. And - in that same building, on the ground-level and first-floor there were three places staff could go to buy a coffee.
How do you think that worked out for "efficiency" and "productivity"? Hundreds of people lined-up at any given point in the day - all day, every day for 5-days a week, waiting on average 20-30 minutes to get their coffee..."
I worked a place that stopped having janitors empty underdesk wastepaper baskets to "save money". Instead staff had to take their basket to the bins out back. Besides exasperating their rodent problem there was a steady stream of office workers, all of them making more or even much more than a contract janitor, spending several minutes a day emptying a basket that a janitor used to spend about 20 seconds dealing with.
posted by Mitheral at 11:10 AM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
How do you think that worked out for "efficiency" and "productivity"? Hundreds of people lined-up at any given point in the day - all day, every day for 5-days a week, waiting on average 20-30 minutes to get their coffee..."
I worked a place that stopped having janitors empty underdesk wastepaper baskets to "save money". Instead staff had to take their basket to the bins out back. Besides exasperating their rodent problem there was a steady stream of office workers, all of them making more or even much more than a contract janitor, spending several minutes a day emptying a basket that a janitor used to spend about 20 seconds dealing with.
posted by Mitheral at 11:10 AM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
Also another related story for #techprivilege land. Our company has enough of a critical mass of coffee nerds that there's been pressure to upgrade the automated machines from quasi Keurigs to something better and has now culminated in having a local third wave coffee shop setup a pop-up stand in our office offering hand crafted espresso and latte art for a pretty discounted price and now people (still!) kvetch about the pop up not being free coffee. And for me, at least, it crystallised this particular boundary about how I am comfortable with having snack stations that are free but stocked by an underclass of service workers who are presumably paid a decent wage, but actually being served a beverage that requires actual labor by a live human who I am not actually paying sets off weird exploitation triggers in my mind.
posted by bl1nk at 11:11 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by bl1nk at 11:11 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
I work for a manufacturer in the tech industry; we frequently will hold “Lunch & Learns” at our dealer’s offices to go over our latest products, etc. I try to make sure we always overorder to insure there is enough food even if more people than RSVP show up. Because I’m the person who is giving the presentation, I don’t get to eat until the end of the hour (occasionally I’ll run across a really nice office admin who encourages me to eat before the event starts, but I always feel like it is bad optics if I’m the first person to dig in, plus I’m generally running around making sure my presentation and demo gear is in order during that time anyway). Eating cold food I’ve come to accept, what never fails to shock me though is the number of folks who have absolutely no shame about grabbing a free lunch and then not bothering to sit through the “Learn” part of the event.
It is not at all uncommon for my expense report to include, on the same day, one charge for a “Lunch and Learn” and then a separate expense for my own lunch at a different location because the vultures at the office didn’t bother to leave me anything.
posted by The Gooch at 11:12 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
It is not at all uncommon for my expense report to include, on the same day, one charge for a “Lunch and Learn” and then a separate expense for my own lunch at a different location because the vultures at the office didn’t bother to leave me anything.
posted by The Gooch at 11:12 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Is this really considered unseemly?
Heh... it's "the Internets", people are gonna be judgy (myself included)... Naw, you don't sound like a vulture... those are the ones that I have seen actually knock stuff flying off their desks in their rush for free leftover meeting food... I guess it can be unseemly, depending on how it is done - like people at work party buffet lines who are back for seconds before everyone has even had a first plate... (typically occurs at poorly organized work functions... the best was one I attended last Christmas, where each table collected money to then try and "bid" to be the first table up - but the last table to go, got all the money from all the other tables to split among themselves)
posted by jkaczor at 11:16 AM on March 5, 2019
Heh... it's "the Internets", people are gonna be judgy (myself included)... Naw, you don't sound like a vulture... those are the ones that I have seen actually knock stuff flying off their desks in their rush for free leftover meeting food... I guess it can be unseemly, depending on how it is done - like people at work party buffet lines who are back for seconds before everyone has even had a first plate... (typically occurs at poorly organized work functions... the best was one I attended last Christmas, where each table collected money to then try and "bid" to be the first table up - but the last table to go, got all the money from all the other tables to split among themselves)
posted by jkaczor at 11:16 AM on March 5, 2019
Man, I wish my workplace had free food apart from the very irregular "leftover meeting sandwiches in the break room" stuff. As it is, the office tradition on birthdays is that you bring in your own cake(s) for other people. Fucking barbarism.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:21 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 11:21 AM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Minnesota slice
I used to play pool with him; he always took the last shot.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:23 AM on March 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
I used to play pool with him; he always took the last shot.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:23 AM on March 5, 2019 [9 favorites]
the thing that's been jumping out at me lately (as a non-tech worker in San Francisco with lots of friends in tech) is just HOW PROUD tech workers are of their snacks.
The tech job market is very competitive for employers. Most companies within a particular market (SF, NYC, DC, whatever) pay about the same, or at least on the same effort/reward curve. Unless you know somebody, you're probably not going to find a job that's going to pay you dramatically more for the same skillset and level of effort, at least for your first few years.
So, within that framework, stuff like really nice snacks is a differentiator. And it really does matter to people. It's more than a little #firstworldproblems, but when you're making $150k and everyone around you is making $150k and you know you could lose your job and get another one tomorrow at one of six different places, also making $150k... well, suddenly the money is just table stakes. Candidates are basically like: "okay, great, competitive salary, health plan, whatever, of course you do, what else you got?"
It's one of those things where I don't blame people outside the tech sector for thinking it's weird and crazy. It is, objectively, weird and crazy, particularly in a society where a significant number of people are never going to make in a year what a two-years-out-of-college software engineer in SF makes in a month. But it's how it works.
In every conversation about this stuff, there's always people who say "instead of free food companies should just pay their employees more!" but the reason companies do the free-snacks thing is because it helps retention more than giving everyone the same amount in additional salary. There are companies that have tried to be really hard-nosed, and just give people money but have cut-rate office spaces and zero freebies; turns out in a competitive labor market it's not a winning formula. (Amazon has a whole mythos about that crap; they now offer most of the usual tech-company perks, because they have to.) Because, if you run a s/w company, those people you're trying desperately to recruit only care about money so far. Once they've checked the "salary" box and know they're not getting shafted, people will absolutely join or stay with a company based on the work environment. Any company not giving out free snacks is, on a pure ROI basis, incredibly stupid. It's a few thousand bucks a year—recruiting one engineer costs more than that. So if it slows average turnover by even a few months—just giving people a second thought when their friend tells them another place is hiring—it's worthwhile.
This is what a labor-driven job market looks like. It may be silly, but personally I'd like to see more of it, not less.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [30 favorites]
The tech job market is very competitive for employers. Most companies within a particular market (SF, NYC, DC, whatever) pay about the same, or at least on the same effort/reward curve. Unless you know somebody, you're probably not going to find a job that's going to pay you dramatically more for the same skillset and level of effort, at least for your first few years.
So, within that framework, stuff like really nice snacks is a differentiator. And it really does matter to people. It's more than a little #firstworldproblems, but when you're making $150k and everyone around you is making $150k and you know you could lose your job and get another one tomorrow at one of six different places, also making $150k... well, suddenly the money is just table stakes. Candidates are basically like: "okay, great, competitive salary, health plan, whatever, of course you do, what else you got?"
It's one of those things where I don't blame people outside the tech sector for thinking it's weird and crazy. It is, objectively, weird and crazy, particularly in a society where a significant number of people are never going to make in a year what a two-years-out-of-college software engineer in SF makes in a month. But it's how it works.
In every conversation about this stuff, there's always people who say "instead of free food companies should just pay their employees more!" but the reason companies do the free-snacks thing is because it helps retention more than giving everyone the same amount in additional salary. There are companies that have tried to be really hard-nosed, and just give people money but have cut-rate office spaces and zero freebies; turns out in a competitive labor market it's not a winning formula. (Amazon has a whole mythos about that crap; they now offer most of the usual tech-company perks, because they have to.) Because, if you run a s/w company, those people you're trying desperately to recruit only care about money so far. Once they've checked the "salary" box and know they're not getting shafted, people will absolutely join or stay with a company based on the work environment. Any company not giving out free snacks is, on a pure ROI basis, incredibly stupid. It's a few thousand bucks a year—recruiting one engineer costs more than that. So if it slows average turnover by even a few months—just giving people a second thought when their friend tells them another place is hiring—it's worthwhile.
This is what a labor-driven job market looks like. It may be silly, but personally I'd like to see more of it, not less.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:32 AM on March 5, 2019 [30 favorites]
I'm glad my firm doesn't have free food available very often. It's so caloric. Honestly, it's all I can do to walk past the table of free bagels that's set out every first Monday of the month.
posted by slkinsey at 11:34 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by slkinsey at 11:34 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
As it is, the office tradition on birthdays is that you bring in your own cake(s) for other people. Fucking barbarism.
There's a definite benefit to "Birthday celebrant provides their own cake", though. If an office provides the cake, and they accidentally leave someone out, or don't provide GF/vegan cake for the GF/vegans, or whatever--it can turn into an issue of favoritism (perceived or actual). If the birthday celebrant brings their own cake, then it's not an issue of favoritism.
posted by Autumnheart at 11:40 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
There's a definite benefit to "Birthday celebrant provides their own cake", though. If an office provides the cake, and they accidentally leave someone out, or don't provide GF/vegan cake for the GF/vegans, or whatever--it can turn into an issue of favoritism (perceived or actual). If the birthday celebrant brings their own cake, then it's not an issue of favoritism.
posted by Autumnheart at 11:40 AM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
I guess lurking and grabbing for free food - as opposed to taking it when it becomes available - is unseemly to me for these reasons:
1. If there's a meeting, it's jerky to lurk around making the people in the actual meeting feel watched. It's jerky to stand around being visibly impatient over something like free food while other people are trying to work.
2. It's jerky to take more than your fair share of something unless you really need it, and sometimes even then. Like, I understand that students are on tight budgets, but very often students are competing with other students, also on tight budgets, for the free lunch. Taking more than your share means that others don't get any.
3. Most of the people in question are not in fact so broke that a delay or a smaller serving on one occasion is going to be a problem for them, and much of the food is cookies/cake/etc, so it's unlikely to be a huge component of people's diets in any case.
Also, I used to be an administrative assistant, and admins got food last because we had to make sure that it was set up and that everyone had access. On several occasions, I didn't get lunch because the rest of the staff - who had not arranged or set up the meal - took huge servings on the first pass. So the people who made more than I did and had more status than I did also got free food while I got none, because I had to go last.
posted by Frowner at 11:42 AM on March 5, 2019 [19 favorites]
1. If there's a meeting, it's jerky to lurk around making the people in the actual meeting feel watched. It's jerky to stand around being visibly impatient over something like free food while other people are trying to work.
2. It's jerky to take more than your fair share of something unless you really need it, and sometimes even then. Like, I understand that students are on tight budgets, but very often students are competing with other students, also on tight budgets, for the free lunch. Taking more than your share means that others don't get any.
3. Most of the people in question are not in fact so broke that a delay or a smaller serving on one occasion is going to be a problem for them, and much of the food is cookies/cake/etc, so it's unlikely to be a huge component of people's diets in any case.
Also, I used to be an administrative assistant, and admins got food last because we had to make sure that it was set up and that everyone had access. On several occasions, I didn't get lunch because the rest of the staff - who had not arranged or set up the meal - took huge servings on the first pass. So the people who made more than I did and had more status than I did also got free food while I got none, because I had to go last.
posted by Frowner at 11:42 AM on March 5, 2019 [19 favorites]
We do have company supplied cake at "all-hands" once a month for everyone with a birthday that month.
posted by octothorpe at 11:44 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 11:44 AM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Where I work (as staff at a large university) food at meetings is often seen as a class marker (between faculty, adjunct faculty and staff). When we hold lunchtime ish meetings where faculty will be present, we order food. Staff only? Nah. You can brown bag it or eat before/after. And then there's even more subtle differences between getting food from Sodexho vs an actual restaurant.
Right now I'm on a planning committee that's trying to get staff on board with some new stuff, and we are plying people with restaurant catering. That's the highest status food there is and it definitely sends a certain message about how much people are valued.
The Sodexho leftovers get taken over to where most of our student employees are and there's a lot of waste because it's just so much shitty salad with Newman's Own dressing packets and even hungry undergrads don't really want that. Pizza, however, goes fast. I don't think there's too much vulture behavior, but it's usually distributed in an area where you will definitely be seen by multiple people, so maybe that discourages it?
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:47 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
Right now I'm on a planning committee that's trying to get staff on board with some new stuff, and we are plying people with restaurant catering. That's the highest status food there is and it definitely sends a certain message about how much people are valued.
The Sodexho leftovers get taken over to where most of our student employees are and there's a lot of waste because it's just so much shitty salad with Newman's Own dressing packets and even hungry undergrads don't really want that. Pizza, however, goes fast. I don't think there's too much vulture behavior, but it's usually distributed in an area where you will definitely be seen by multiple people, so maybe that discourages it?
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:47 AM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
the intersection of (a) people who live in NYC, (b) people who have a strong interest in attending a live performance of Verdi's Nabucco, and (c) people for whom the price of the least expensive ticket to the Met represents a meaningful hardship is quite small
Having been a member of that group (or of the adjacent group, people who visit NYC, etc.) for many years, let me tell you that you are wrong about our membership size.
posted by praemunire at 11:50 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
Having been a member of that group (or of the adjacent group, people who visit NYC, etc.) for many years, let me tell you that you are wrong about our membership size.
posted by praemunire at 11:50 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
Metafilter: There’s just something primal about free sustenance.
posted by Bob Regular at 11:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Bob Regular at 11:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
For most of the last 20 years, my several employers have been of the "free snacks for all" variety to one degree or another, so it was a little jarring to go back to a "no free snacks" office when I changed jobs in 2017. The way this office gets around it is that the attorneys all order lunch for their (always-at-noon) client meetings and deliberately order more than they need so that there are leftovers available almost every day. One of my teammates scores "second lunch" several times a week on this scheme. The firm did recently start offering free fruit, and the hoarding has been crazy bad.
posted by briank at 11:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 11:51 AM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
I worked a place that stopped having janitors empty underdesk wastepaper baskets to "save money". Instead staff had to take their basket to the bins out back. Besides exasperating their rodent problem there was a steady stream of office workers, all of them making more or even much more than a contract janitor, spending several minutes a day emptying a basket that a janitor used to spend about 20 seconds dealing with.
I was collocated with a sponsor at the local Air Force Base (in the US, this wasn't exactly a hazard pay location) for several years at my last job, and not only did they eliminate all trash pickup (we had to bring desk trash to large bins in the halls where the lieutenants were supposed to cart them off to the dumpster), they reduced bathroom cleanings and restockings to once a week. Trash bags and paper products basically disappeared because everyone started hoarding them. The building facilities manager had to keep the roll of trash bags on a chain next to his desk with a security camera pointed at it because people kept stealing it. Someone eventually filed an OSHA complaint because of the filth.
Also at this location, there was also the usual "coffee club" (pay a couple bucks a month in to the kitty for all you can drink Maxwell House). Amusingly, though, there was also a "water club" - people who didn't trust the tap water for whatever reason were supplying large jugs of bottled water and charging to use the bubbler. In an act of mercy, our company provided water coolers for our exclusive use but everyone in the building used them anyway. Pretty sure they were refilling the coffee makers from them for a while.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I was collocated with a sponsor at the local Air Force Base (in the US, this wasn't exactly a hazard pay location) for several years at my last job, and not only did they eliminate all trash pickup (we had to bring desk trash to large bins in the halls where the lieutenants were supposed to cart them off to the dumpster), they reduced bathroom cleanings and restockings to once a week. Trash bags and paper products basically disappeared because everyone started hoarding them. The building facilities manager had to keep the roll of trash bags on a chain next to his desk with a security camera pointed at it because people kept stealing it. Someone eventually filed an OSHA complaint because of the filth.
Also at this location, there was also the usual "coffee club" (pay a couple bucks a month in to the kitty for all you can drink Maxwell House). Amusingly, though, there was also a "water club" - people who didn't trust the tap water for whatever reason were supplying large jugs of bottled water and charging to use the bubbler. In an act of mercy, our company provided water coolers for our exclusive use but everyone in the building used them anyway. Pretty sure they were refilling the coffee makers from them for a while.
posted by backseatpilot at 12:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
There is just something about "free food!" turns people into monsters.
I work for everyone's favorite techno-fruit company. In our Caffes, we used to have giant bowls of our namesake fruit that people could grab, for free.
Well, even though everyone involved made significant money, that fruit just disappeared. People would unzip their backpacks and use their forearms to just empty an entire bowl. I'm talking amounts that even a family of ten probably couldn't get through without some spoiling. Anyway, one day there was just a sign that said "Due to the off- season and quality of the available blah blah" and the apples never came back.
Eventually the same thing happened with dinner rolls, but they just put those behind a counter (like condoms or Sudafed!) and you had to ask for them.
posted by sideshow at 12:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I work for everyone's favorite techno-fruit company. In our Caffes, we used to have giant bowls of our namesake fruit that people could grab, for free.
Well, even though everyone involved made significant money, that fruit just disappeared. People would unzip their backpacks and use their forearms to just empty an entire bowl. I'm talking amounts that even a family of ten probably couldn't get through without some spoiling. Anyway, one day there was just a sign that said "Due to the off- season and quality of the available blah blah" and the apples never came back.
Eventually the same thing happened with dinner rolls, but they just put those behind a counter (like condoms or Sudafed!) and you had to ask for them.
posted by sideshow at 12:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I guess lurking and grabbing for free food - as opposed to taking it when it becomes available - is unseemly to me for these reasons:
I am happy to share a meal or eat what I'm offered, but scrounging for food at work is...it's not unseemly to me, it's demeaning. Like I'm a dog salivating over table scraps.
Eating a perfectly good sandwich that would otherwise go to waste? Sure, of course. But hoarding food and stuffing your cheeks like you're a chipmunk in October? Have some dignity, damn.
posted by rue72 at 12:10 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I am happy to share a meal or eat what I'm offered, but scrounging for food at work is...it's not unseemly to me, it's demeaning. Like I'm a dog salivating over table scraps.
Eating a perfectly good sandwich that would otherwise go to waste? Sure, of course. But hoarding food and stuffing your cheeks like you're a chipmunk in October? Have some dignity, damn.
posted by rue72 at 12:10 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
praemunire, I don't want to split hairs over the size of the group of opera lovers who inhabit or visit NYC and find a $30 ticket cost a meaningful hardship. I am well aware that they exist. Indeed, back in my student days I was among those who used to wait on line most Saturday mornings for extra-cheap standing room tickets, because otherwise I couldn't afford to attend. You'll just have to take my word for it that the population of the great lawn during Met in the Parks concerts gives every appearance of being comprised in a large majority of people who are not members of that group. And again, I will reiterate that this misses my point entirely, which is that there is a huge number of people who could afford to attend performances in the house -- irrespective of the existence of an undetermined number of those who could not afford to do so -- and nevertheless go to a great deal of inconvenience and time to go to Met in the Parks concerts because they're free.
posted by slkinsey at 12:12 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by slkinsey at 12:12 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Well, even though everyone involved made significant money, that fruit just disappeared. People would unzip their backpacks and use their forearms to just empty an entire bowl. I'm talking amounts that even a family of ten probably couldn't get through without some spoiling. Anyway, one day there was just a sign that said "Due to the off- season and quality of the available blah blah" and the apples never came back.
See, it's stuff like this that really makes me feel that human "civilization" is pointless - even rich people who could buy their own apples, probably very fancy ones from a fancy store, can't keep themselves from grabbing so many apples that they ruin it for everyone else.
The only cheering point is that maybe this is a power-user problem, like so much bad human behavior. Perhaps only 5% of people are responsible for ruining things for everyone else, and if you take care of them, the problem will disappear. Maybe the actual solution is for the People's Apple Militia to beat down the greedy.
posted by Frowner at 12:14 PM on March 5, 2019 [10 favorites]
Pelt them with the objects of their undoing!!
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2019 [15 favorites]
I'll see your free food at work stories and raise you one, but I warn you, this will probably make you as despondent as it made me.
A very nice gourmet cupcake shop about a two minute walk from work had a daily promotion: at some point they would announce a "secret" flavor only on Twitter. If you went in and asked nicely, you would get the cupcake for free. The promotion ran out when the cupcakes ran out and I believe they only made 50-60 each day or so. It was a nice way to get some social followers and perhaps there was some benefit to testing new flavors and getting feedback. One would also hope that repeat visitors exercised some form of restraint or made up for it in other ways (buying coffee, etc.)
So of course, an in-house software engineer devised a way to scrape the shop's Twitter feed each morning and the instant it came out, automated an e-mail blast sent to the entire company (approx 100 people) announcing the secret flavor of the day.
As logic would have it, the cupcake company stopped the promotion a few months later, no doubt getting tired of all the free handouts to the same people day after day. To be somewhat fair, our company would order large quantities of their cupcakes for events, but I suspect it was more out of convenience than moral fiber.
posted by jeremias at 12:34 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
A very nice gourmet cupcake shop about a two minute walk from work had a daily promotion: at some point they would announce a "secret" flavor only on Twitter. If you went in and asked nicely, you would get the cupcake for free. The promotion ran out when the cupcakes ran out and I believe they only made 50-60 each day or so. It was a nice way to get some social followers and perhaps there was some benefit to testing new flavors and getting feedback. One would also hope that repeat visitors exercised some form of restraint or made up for it in other ways (buying coffee, etc.)
So of course, an in-house software engineer devised a way to scrape the shop's Twitter feed each morning and the instant it came out, automated an e-mail blast sent to the entire company (approx 100 people) announcing the secret flavor of the day.
As logic would have it, the cupcake company stopped the promotion a few months later, no doubt getting tired of all the free handouts to the same people day after day. To be somewhat fair, our company would order large quantities of their cupcakes for events, but I suspect it was more out of convenience than moral fiber.
posted by jeremias at 12:34 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
MetaFilter: It's a combo of "people like free stuff" and "people don't actually like working all that much so anything that kills time is valued".
posted by Gelatin at 12:45 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Gelatin at 12:45 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
You know what'd rather have than free cake or 'Taco Tuesdays', better pay or more time off or work conditions that don't make me feel like a small child whose every move is being watched and scrutinized.
Yeah, but that will never, ever happen, so the best you can get is free food.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:47 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah, but that will never, ever happen, so the best you can get is free food.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:47 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I've always been told that government offices have the "coffee club" / "water club" things because of various asinine government regulations prohibiting spending money on coffee/water/snacks (or presumably anything else that might make working in a government office less than a Sartre-grade slice of hell, the way God and Congress intended).
Also I wouldn't drink the tap water at an Air Force base, or really any DoD facility that's not brand new. They seem to have some issues with the water being, uhm, full of cancer.
Anyway, count me in for the "it's a symptom of company culture" crowd. The only places where I've seen people hoard food had... other problems. It definitely seemed to be a little "fuck you" to the company, other employees included. I don't think people do stuff like that when they like the place they work—perhaps more importantly the people they work with / the team they're on. Come to think of it, at the best team I've worked on, people used to set aside food for their teammates if they weren't around to grab it, and used to bring in gluten-free stuff specifically for the one person who was GF. It was nice.
It's probably a good indicator of toxic culture, but fixing food-hoarding probably won't do anything about the underlying problems.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:54 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also I wouldn't drink the tap water at an Air Force base, or really any DoD facility that's not brand new. They seem to have some issues with the water being, uhm, full of cancer.
Anyway, count me in for the "it's a symptom of company culture" crowd. The only places where I've seen people hoard food had... other problems. It definitely seemed to be a little "fuck you" to the company, other employees included. I don't think people do stuff like that when they like the place they work—perhaps more importantly the people they work with / the team they're on. Come to think of it, at the best team I've worked on, people used to set aside food for their teammates if they weren't around to grab it, and used to bring in gluten-free stuff specifically for the one person who was GF. It was nice.
It's probably a good indicator of toxic culture, but fixing food-hoarding probably won't do anything about the underlying problems.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:54 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
librarianamy: That said, when there are catered lunches in the conference rooms, the statement I keep hearing is "take it back to the offices, because if it stays here the cleaning people will just take it." To which I always say "good, dude, you're making six figures, and they're cleaning up our messes. They deserve that soggy chicken wrap more than you do."
Ha, thank you! I mean, I haven't done janitorial work for nearly thirty years, but back in the day, we absolutely appreciated that sort of clean-up. IIRC, we were actually on orders not to leave leftover baked goods out in the offices because of bugs.
I can't remember working in an office that had a real problem with food-grabbers/hoarders. In fact, when we have food, either free goodies bought by appreciative patrons or for holiday parties, we have had to beg people to take stuff home, especially when we had the manager who over-ordered catered food.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:11 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Ha, thank you! I mean, I haven't done janitorial work for nearly thirty years, but back in the day, we absolutely appreciated that sort of clean-up. IIRC, we were actually on orders not to leave leftover baked goods out in the offices because of bugs.
I can't remember working in an office that had a real problem with food-grabbers/hoarders. In fact, when we have food, either free goodies bought by appreciative patrons or for holiday parties, we have had to beg people to take stuff home, especially when we had the manager who over-ordered catered food.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:11 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I work for Blue Shirt Electronics, and every year there are corporate-wide food-related events. We used to have an all-employee party in July, which got downgraded post-recession to an all-employee lunch. They'd set up a series of tents in a parking lot outside, and your trip through the line included a hamburger or hot dog, condiments, chips, cookie, and a drink.
So a couple years ago, the employee lunch was canceled at the last minute because it was forecast to be nearly 100 degrees out, which is no weather for people to be either cooking over a grill, waiting in line for half an hour, or for condiments to sit out. A month later, they made it up with a "Treat Day" which was such a huge hit, they scrapped the lunch entirely and replaced it with Treat Day.
Basically, there are several stations set up around the lobby that connects all the buildings: ice cream at one, candy bars at another, cookies at a third, popcorn at a fourth, hummus and pita and sliced veggies at a fifth, cotton candy at a sixth, pop at a seventh. And all 4000-odd people would come swarming downstairs and go from station to station, then go back to their desks with a double-handful of treats. It's like trick-or-treating for grownups. The energy from the crowd during that half hour is insane, it's like the State Fair on the busiest Saturday. The vast majority of people aren't unseemly about it, though--they'll stand politely in line and take their one allotted item per station.
In the winter, they have Hot Chocolate Day, and will set up huge tables full of hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows, coffee, tea, and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Not as insane as Treat Day, but very popular.
So people WILL go nuts over free food, but it's also definitely true that it can be a huge morale-booster. And this is a pretty high-morale company to begin with, but when it comes with free ice cream and candy bars, well.
Overall, company-provided food is infrequent but not unheard of. If there's a team project that requires a late night, chances are pretty good that the manager will provide dinner. If an all-department meeting is scheduled for the whole morning, there will probably be pastries and coffee/water provided. The (objectively very good) cafeteria isn't free, but is subsidized so that prices are very reasonable for what you get. There are vending machines in the buildings, and a a Caribou location at each end of the campus, but generally the only free food you might get in an ordinary day is if your coworkers decide to bring something in.
posted by Autumnheart at 1:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
So a couple years ago, the employee lunch was canceled at the last minute because it was forecast to be nearly 100 degrees out, which is no weather for people to be either cooking over a grill, waiting in line for half an hour, or for condiments to sit out. A month later, they made it up with a "Treat Day" which was such a huge hit, they scrapped the lunch entirely and replaced it with Treat Day.
Basically, there are several stations set up around the lobby that connects all the buildings: ice cream at one, candy bars at another, cookies at a third, popcorn at a fourth, hummus and pita and sliced veggies at a fifth, cotton candy at a sixth, pop at a seventh. And all 4000-odd people would come swarming downstairs and go from station to station, then go back to their desks with a double-handful of treats. It's like trick-or-treating for grownups. The energy from the crowd during that half hour is insane, it's like the State Fair on the busiest Saturday. The vast majority of people aren't unseemly about it, though--they'll stand politely in line and take their one allotted item per station.
In the winter, they have Hot Chocolate Day, and will set up huge tables full of hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows, coffee, tea, and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Not as insane as Treat Day, but very popular.
So people WILL go nuts over free food, but it's also definitely true that it can be a huge morale-booster. And this is a pretty high-morale company to begin with, but when it comes with free ice cream and candy bars, well.
Overall, company-provided food is infrequent but not unheard of. If there's a team project that requires a late night, chances are pretty good that the manager will provide dinner. If an all-department meeting is scheduled for the whole morning, there will probably be pastries and coffee/water provided. The (objectively very good) cafeteria isn't free, but is subsidized so that prices are very reasonable for what you get. There are vending machines in the buildings, and a a Caribou location at each end of the campus, but generally the only free food you might get in an ordinary day is if your coworkers decide to bring something in.
posted by Autumnheart at 1:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
If the birthday celebrant brings their own cake, then it's not an issue of favoritism.
It is an issue of giving things to other people on my birthday, and I will gather a mob and burn the fucking world to the ground over it.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:42 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
It is an issue of giving things to other people on my birthday, and I will gather a mob and burn the fucking world to the ground over it.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:42 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
Behavior such as described in the article is bound to happen when the ratio of people to cake is too big.
posted by glonous keming at 1:46 PM on March 5, 2019
posted by glonous keming at 1:46 PM on March 5, 2019
Now Milton, don't be greedy, let's pass it along and make sure everyone gets a piece!
posted by soelo at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by soelo at 1:57 PM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
Like everything, these things are complicated. I don't believe it's just about money or work conditions.
Many years ago I worked in a warehouse, the most insane place I've ever worked or even heard about, with a bunch of (mostly) dudes who were not maybe the most upstanding citizens. On donut day it would take hours for them to all be gone, even though there probably weren't nearly as many donuts as people.
It was a different dynamic, there was certainly no entitlement. There would have been a real chance that someone might actually punch you if you tried to take all the donuts though, just on principal.
posted by bongo_x at 2:08 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Many years ago I worked in a warehouse, the most insane place I've ever worked or even heard about, with a bunch of (mostly) dudes who were not maybe the most upstanding citizens. On donut day it would take hours for them to all be gone, even though there probably weren't nearly as many donuts as people.
It was a different dynamic, there was certainly no entitlement. There would have been a real chance that someone might actually punch you if you tried to take all the donuts though, just on principal.
posted by bongo_x at 2:08 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Our workplace seems to be a combination of the two scenarios mentioned above. Leave food in a department and it'll sit for days or even weeks before someone finally throws it out. Leave food in the communal kitchen, and it's a different story (especially if it's something good). We have one guy who I affectionately (and internally) refer to as "Yogi" (as in Yogi Bear) because he's constantly on the hunt for food in the office, sniffing out left over meeting lunches, etc. (In all fairness he doesn't seem to be a food hoarder/thief or someone who'd step over you for a cookie, he just seems more...determined than most in this regard).
posted by gtrwolf at 2:31 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by gtrwolf at 2:31 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
My previous workplace to here, in the Seattle area, had rooms where you could get stuff. They also had, irritatingly, the tendency to only restock drinks every other day, and so they'd run out usually by the end of the first day... except on the executive floor. I worked a late shift, so when my breaktime came around, I'd ride the elevator up to the executive floor and get some drinks (and sometimes some of the better snacks they had up there), because that floor got restocked every day.
At that place, they also had a "happy hour" every Payday. They'd start it at 3 PM. My lunch was at 3:15. More than once, I would get off the phone at 3:15, go over there, and find it utterly destroyed - nothing left but sauce and scraps. Once time I went there and one of the sales goons was there doing a two-fisted beer drink and said, "Gotta move faster, man!" I replied, "Some of us actually do work." and he got pissy at me. (this is also a place where they had a whole special dinner for the technical support team at a pretty fancy place, and the sales goons tried to sneak in to the open bar. They weren't even let in.)
Where I am now has fizzy-water and crackers, and sometime hummus and guacamole or Babybels (mm cheese), but I've had to fight some battles. For example, they do a bi-weekly "minutes" meeting, and I finally got them to understand that some people don't drink or want alcohol, so now there's some other sodas available. Which is nice.
But man, when the first Friday of the month rolls around and they put out stuff for the monthly Birthday Celebration, it's a freaking horrorshow trying to get something.
posted by mephron at 2:43 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
At that place, they also had a "happy hour" every Payday. They'd start it at 3 PM. My lunch was at 3:15. More than once, I would get off the phone at 3:15, go over there, and find it utterly destroyed - nothing left but sauce and scraps. Once time I went there and one of the sales goons was there doing a two-fisted beer drink and said, "Gotta move faster, man!" I replied, "Some of us actually do work." and he got pissy at me. (this is also a place where they had a whole special dinner for the technical support team at a pretty fancy place, and the sales goons tried to sneak in to the open bar. They weren't even let in.)
Where I am now has fizzy-water and crackers, and sometime hummus and guacamole or Babybels (mm cheese), but I've had to fight some battles. For example, they do a bi-weekly "minutes" meeting, and I finally got them to understand that some people don't drink or want alcohol, so now there's some other sodas available. Which is nice.
But man, when the first Friday of the month rolls around and they put out stuff for the monthly Birthday Celebration, it's a freaking horrorshow trying to get something.
posted by mephron at 2:43 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Reading through this makes me wanna raid the "anyone please take" snack area in the office kitchen, which is randomly populated with leftover items from either office-related events (we do a lot of outreach) or just stuff people no longer want at home (such as bananas that are ripening too quickly for the owner's taste, or homemade goods that the baker doesn't want to eat the entirety of by themselves). Currently there are stick pretzels and tortilla chips from a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and dried food "chips" from another outreach event that happened this week. In the fridge are a couple of opened 2-liters of random soda from an event over the weekend, plus a dozen Diet Coke cans from an event a month ago -- the leftover "good" soda has already been gradually consumed.
On Fridays, a staff member usually buys donuts (via a company card) from one of the best donut places in the area, and even though most of us are healthy eaters, we're all like "ZOMG THESE ARE SO YUMMY." My schedule is skewed a little later than most, so a lot of the time I forget there are donuts until someone brings the half-empty box into the afternoon staff meeting or I wander into the kitchen and be pleasantly surprised by what's on the table. I still have no idea what a full donut box looks like, though.
However, at my previous job, where everyone worked different shifts, it was a crapshoot what kind of free food we'd get, and I learned the hard way that even if I didn't want that pizza/donut/candy/etc, I'd still grab a piece and put it in the fridge with my name on it (or in my locker if it didn't need to be refrigerated until I chose to consume it). Because if I didn't, then there wouldn't be anything in the hour or two that I waited to head back to the breakroom. This was a relatively minimum-wage job, though, so I didn't blame anyone for scavenging. I mean, I took no shame in purposefully counting on leftovers during the holiday shifts (because we had to work holidays, so yeah, I'm gonna get a few meals out those catered lunches!). The management were pretty good about ordering enough for everyone when there were those kinds of events (holidays and all-hands staff meetings), though, so they encouraged people to take home leftovers, since it would just sit in the fridge for a week to be gradually picked over.
That job did train me to take any non-perishable items and store a couple at my desk for those times when I was like, "NEED! SNACK! NOW!" and there wouldn't be any magical leftover snacks available, which is something I still do this day, although not to the extent when I had to fight for a piece of anything.
Prior to that, I worked an overnight shift at a hotel and I never, ever got to see any of the free stuff. Someone might remember to save me a cupcake from a birthday celebration, but most of the time I had no idea that there was any pizza/etc ordered during the day. But it was a hotel that had "free breakfast" for all the guests, so yeah I had "free breakfast" every morning (or at least on the mornings when they made the things I liked -- you learn after a while which hot foods are worth it and which mornings you're best just grabbing a piece of fruit and a yogurt).
Haha, and as I was typing this, one of my coworkers wandered around to all the offices letting people know that they should eat the leftover pizza (purchased for a volunteer meeting over the weekend) before it goes bad. Yeah, this job is much better about company food!
posted by paisley sheep at 2:52 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
On Fridays, a staff member usually buys donuts (via a company card) from one of the best donut places in the area, and even though most of us are healthy eaters, we're all like "ZOMG THESE ARE SO YUMMY." My schedule is skewed a little later than most, so a lot of the time I forget there are donuts until someone brings the half-empty box into the afternoon staff meeting or I wander into the kitchen and be pleasantly surprised by what's on the table. I still have no idea what a full donut box looks like, though.
However, at my previous job, where everyone worked different shifts, it was a crapshoot what kind of free food we'd get, and I learned the hard way that even if I didn't want that pizza/donut/candy/etc, I'd still grab a piece and put it in the fridge with my name on it (or in my locker if it didn't need to be refrigerated until I chose to consume it). Because if I didn't, then there wouldn't be anything in the hour or two that I waited to head back to the breakroom. This was a relatively minimum-wage job, though, so I didn't blame anyone for scavenging. I mean, I took no shame in purposefully counting on leftovers during the holiday shifts (because we had to work holidays, so yeah, I'm gonna get a few meals out those catered lunches!). The management were pretty good about ordering enough for everyone when there were those kinds of events (holidays and all-hands staff meetings), though, so they encouraged people to take home leftovers, since it would just sit in the fridge for a week to be gradually picked over.
That job did train me to take any non-perishable items and store a couple at my desk for those times when I was like, "NEED! SNACK! NOW!" and there wouldn't be any magical leftover snacks available, which is something I still do this day, although not to the extent when I had to fight for a piece of anything.
Prior to that, I worked an overnight shift at a hotel and I never, ever got to see any of the free stuff. Someone might remember to save me a cupcake from a birthday celebration, but most of the time I had no idea that there was any pizza/etc ordered during the day. But it was a hotel that had "free breakfast" for all the guests, so yeah I had "free breakfast" every morning (or at least on the mornings when they made the things I liked -- you learn after a while which hot foods are worth it and which mornings you're best just grabbing a piece of fruit and a yogurt).
Haha, and as I was typing this, one of my coworkers wandered around to all the offices letting people know that they should eat the leftover pizza (purchased for a volunteer meeting over the weekend) before it goes bad. Yeah, this job is much better about company food!
posted by paisley sheep at 2:52 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
My first job out of college was a retail job I still have nightmares about, but it was the height of the recession and I got stuck for almost 5 years. Everyone was required to work Christmas Eve and every year there was a spread with incredible food and unlimited wine put out for us on our shipping table in the basement of the store. It was insanely busy with assholes buying expensive gifts at the last minute and getting furious with us if we didn't have exactly what they wanted so no time to actually eat that food. I would run downstairs to "check on stock" and chug a glass of wine and stuff a bunch of cheese into my mouth.
I will never forget my first Christmas, living across the country from my family and alone for the holidays for the first time ever and feeling like a huge failure, drunk on that wine and stuffed from the food. I spent most of the night throwing up and having the spins. Did I learn my lesson the subsequent years? No, I did not. That free food and wine was the only thing I had to hold on to and I repeated that pathetic and depressing scene every year.
At the same job we used to get really lovely treats from local Seattle favorites on our birthdays, a weird perk in an otherwise shit environment. Of course you would also have to eat those while grabbing something from the storeroom basement while helping customers. The first time I had a Trophy Cupcake right after they first opened in Seattle (and the cupcake boom was gearing up), I shoved the entire cupcake into my mouth as I was walking by and then had to cower in the stacks of cookware to finish eating out of site from anyone else. It was transcendent. I will never have a cupcake that tastes as good as that one did. I went back and ate like 3 more on further trips to the basement before I learned that no one else had been downstairs yet and had a chance to eat them so I was truly the jerk eating all the free food in that situation.
In addition to using food as a way of sticking it to 'the man', I've observed a lot of bizarre diet culture shit in offices that I've worked and believe it causes a lot of this madness. When you put a moral judgment on food and/or tell yourself you absolutely can't be around "bad" foods then weird stuff happens, like you eating food that doesn't even taste good to you. I used to watch women in a really toxic work environment who really invested in dieting as a lifestyle of self control and denial and when free food showed up on our conference table those women went crazy for the food while the other folks in the office who weren't restricting could take it or leave it. I've read books / taken workshops on overcoming binge-eating disorders and you learn again and again that restriction causes binging regardless of whether it's restriction due to scarcity of resources or dieting. The cure for that is to stuff your house full of all the forbidden foods until they don't control you. It's scary and it's incredibly hard and our society is not set up to let people feel okay about doing that.
It bums me out. Food is one of the ways humans have of self-soothing. I don't view eating food, even binging on it, as a moral problem. I think a culture that values restriction and religious-like beliefs about the morality of eating (gluttony) causes a scarcity mindset even among folks who are well paid enough to have as much food as they want. I know that's not 100% what's happening here but I think it's a part of it.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:11 PM on March 5, 2019 [18 favorites]
I will never forget my first Christmas, living across the country from my family and alone for the holidays for the first time ever and feeling like a huge failure, drunk on that wine and stuffed from the food. I spent most of the night throwing up and having the spins. Did I learn my lesson the subsequent years? No, I did not. That free food and wine was the only thing I had to hold on to and I repeated that pathetic and depressing scene every year.
At the same job we used to get really lovely treats from local Seattle favorites on our birthdays, a weird perk in an otherwise shit environment. Of course you would also have to eat those while grabbing something from the storeroom basement while helping customers. The first time I had a Trophy Cupcake right after they first opened in Seattle (and the cupcake boom was gearing up), I shoved the entire cupcake into my mouth as I was walking by and then had to cower in the stacks of cookware to finish eating out of site from anyone else. It was transcendent. I will never have a cupcake that tastes as good as that one did. I went back and ate like 3 more on further trips to the basement before I learned that no one else had been downstairs yet and had a chance to eat them so I was truly the jerk eating all the free food in that situation.
In addition to using food as a way of sticking it to 'the man', I've observed a lot of bizarre diet culture shit in offices that I've worked and believe it causes a lot of this madness. When you put a moral judgment on food and/or tell yourself you absolutely can't be around "bad" foods then weird stuff happens, like you eating food that doesn't even taste good to you. I used to watch women in a really toxic work environment who really invested in dieting as a lifestyle of self control and denial and when free food showed up on our conference table those women went crazy for the food while the other folks in the office who weren't restricting could take it or leave it. I've read books / taken workshops on overcoming binge-eating disorders and you learn again and again that restriction causes binging regardless of whether it's restriction due to scarcity of resources or dieting. The cure for that is to stuff your house full of all the forbidden foods until they don't control you. It's scary and it's incredibly hard and our society is not set up to let people feel okay about doing that.
It bums me out. Food is one of the ways humans have of self-soothing. I don't view eating food, even binging on it, as a moral problem. I think a culture that values restriction and religious-like beliefs about the morality of eating (gluttony) causes a scarcity mindset even among folks who are well paid enough to have as much food as they want. I know that's not 100% what's happening here but I think it's a part of it.
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:11 PM on March 5, 2019 [18 favorites]
In my experience as an office manager, the people who were actually short of money would quietly ask me to let them know if there was uneaten food after an event so that they could take some home for supper.
The people who could easily afford whatever they wanted expected me to buy the exact food they wanted exactly when they wanted it. They wouldn't place a lunch order and then they were displeased with what I ordered for them. They wouldn't listen when I announced the options and I had to stand at the table explaining all the foods over and over again. Etc.
We never got to these kind of hoarding levels, thank goodness.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:22 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
The people who could easily afford whatever they wanted expected me to buy the exact food they wanted exactly when they wanted it. They wouldn't place a lunch order and then they were displeased with what I ordered for them. They wouldn't listen when I announced the options and I had to stand at the table explaining all the foods over and over again. Etc.
We never got to these kind of hoarding levels, thank goodness.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:22 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
In Murder Must Advertise the tea cart comes around once (twice?) a day with, IIRC, the approved biscuit for each rank, and also the tea is served in different china for each rank. Which rankled, but at least everyone seems to have got a biscuit.
posted by clew at 4:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by clew at 4:16 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
In San Francisco in the late '90s I library'd for a law firm specializing in intellectual property. Not infrequently, an office-wide email would go out around 2 PM: "Leftovers in the kitchen!" You'd go in and find lobster.
posted by goofyfoot at 5:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by goofyfoot at 5:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
It's been several years since I worked for Microsoft, but I was an admin during my time there and my org had a monthly happy hour with beer and shitty wine and loads of snacks piled up on the tables. I mean, seriously, piles -- the admin team would load up six or seven carts full of drinks and snacks and meet in the cafeteria area about 90 minutes before the scheduled start of happy hour so that we could assemble everything... and then all the dudes we supported would roll in and grab snacks like the apocalypse was coming and they'd forgotten to stock their bugout bags. Grown-ass men making six figures a year, stuffing their cargo pants pockets with free snack size bags of chips and cookies and candy, sometimes knocking each other over when we'd get something really good like full size candy bars.
There was also a company-wide email alias for free food -- anything left over after a catered lunch or an all-hands meeting would show up there, which was great because it meant leftovers went fast, but terrible because as an admin trying to clean up after these kind of events I'd inevitably be carrying a tray of food out of a meeting room and literally have some guy reach past my face to grab food he wanted. Couldn't even wait for me to walk ten feet and set the damn tray down in the kitchen, nooooooo.
I do sort of miss working in an office, though... for all the perks of telecommuting, there's just never surprise birthday cake from Borrachini's in my kitchen. And I fucking love cake. Especially from Borrachini's.
posted by palomar at 5:34 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
There was also a company-wide email alias for free food -- anything left over after a catered lunch or an all-hands meeting would show up there, which was great because it meant leftovers went fast, but terrible because as an admin trying to clean up after these kind of events I'd inevitably be carrying a tray of food out of a meeting room and literally have some guy reach past my face to grab food he wanted. Couldn't even wait for me to walk ten feet and set the damn tray down in the kitchen, nooooooo.
I do sort of miss working in an office, though... for all the perks of telecommuting, there's just never surprise birthday cake from Borrachini's in my kitchen. And I fucking love cake. Especially from Borrachini's.
posted by palomar at 5:34 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Metafilter: the approved biscuit for each rank
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:23 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:23 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I don’t recall rank-based biscuits or china in Murder Must Advertise, but Peter Wimsey Death Bredon receives approbation from Miss Parton for willingly paying his share of the tea bill, unlike certain other office denizens who prefer to complain about the buns and biscuits and not pay their share. So it wasn’t quite free food in that office, but more of an “everybody theoretically pitches in for tea and snacks, but most people try to mooch” thing. Also a well-known feature of office life, that.
(Except for Mr. Pym’s monthly invitation-only tea, which had sandwiches provided. But that was saved by being strictly supervised by Mr. Pym himself, who only invited twenty people at a time.)
posted by snowmentality at 7:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
(Except for Mr. Pym’s monthly invitation-only tea, which had sandwiches provided. But that was saved by being strictly supervised by Mr. Pym himself, who only invited twenty people at a time.)
posted by snowmentality at 7:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
go to Met in the Parks concerts because they're free
I don't want to be presumptuous about people's motives, but it does strike me that they might possibly be doing so because an open-air performance in nature is a pleasant way to spend a summer's evening, free or not, and the Met doesn't otherwise perform in the summer.
(Also impressed by your ability to assess the wealth of every member of a crowd of people hanging out on the ground in casual summer clothing.)
posted by praemunire at 7:52 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I don't want to be presumptuous about people's motives, but it does strike me that they might possibly be doing so because an open-air performance in nature is a pleasant way to spend a summer's evening, free or not, and the Met doesn't otherwise perform in the summer.
(Also impressed by your ability to assess the wealth of every member of a crowd of people hanging out on the ground in casual summer clothing.)
posted by praemunire at 7:52 PM on March 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
There are a ton of things that are making me miserable about my current job, but the office culture among my coworkers is the best. It's the only place I've ever worked where everyone is gracious and fair and kind about sharing food. Like, if something is going kind of fast, someone (not always the same someone) will take it upon themselves to DELIVER to the folks whose jobs keep them tied to their phones.
posted by desuetude at 8:29 PM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by desuetude at 8:29 PM on March 5, 2019 [7 favorites]
So I'll say it, as a person with food issues I wish there wasn't so much free food everywhere in my office. Break room, lobby, tables in the halls, colleagues' desks (candy bowls), etc. I'm glad people enjoy it but I wish it was contained in one area and I wasn't walking by it all day long. That said, I've gotten more used to just ignoring it. But it's never truly easy.
posted by soakimbo at 8:55 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by soakimbo at 8:55 PM on March 5, 2019 [6 favorites]
There's a free lunch for trainees every other week in my building. It starts at 12 noon officially, but god help you if you show up after 11:50 expecting to be fed. It's actually oddly reassuring to me that it's not just people in my field that do this, though.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by en forme de poire at 10:01 PM on March 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
My department is having trouble getting people to show up to Grand Rounds (weekly lecture, sometimes given by someone in-house, sometimes by a guest speaker; currently scheduled at 8AM), so the solution proposed at the last faculty meeting was to have it at noon and provide lunch. That got a unanimous yes. If you have ever been to a departmental faculty meeting, you know that faculty are never unanimous on anything -- except apparently the offer of free food.
posted by basalganglia at 4:49 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 4:49 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Our office does made-to-order omelets every morning, but only from 7AM to 8AM and the cutoff is not negotiable. It’s meant to incentivize/reward early birds and because the executive team are early birds. We also have free lunch every day*, a fully stocked salad bar, a robust snack shelf full of nuts, popcorn, and fresh fruit, l and a fridge full of various Red Bull/Monster drinks. And people still bring in food too!
Every once in a while there will be someone who takes more than they need or does weird obsessive things about the free food, in my experience it usually just requires a side conversation from their manager and it’s resolved. I once had a developer who reported to me who was hoarding food. Turned out he had been homeless for several years and old habits die hard.
I do agree a lot of this comes down to some kind of unmet need, and toxic environments create a lot of those.
*We used to do hot lunch every day but it was taking too long so now the chef prepares meals and puts them in deli containers so you can grab and heat up whenever “lunch” is for you. And no doubt about it: this is to encourage people to get back to work and extract more productivity out of their day. So it’s not uncommon for folks to go offsite for lunch anyway, just to get a break.
posted by Doleful Creature at 5:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Every once in a while there will be someone who takes more than they need or does weird obsessive things about the free food, in my experience it usually just requires a side conversation from their manager and it’s resolved. I once had a developer who reported to me who was hoarding food. Turned out he had been homeless for several years and old habits die hard.
I do agree a lot of this comes down to some kind of unmet need, and toxic environments create a lot of those.
*We used to do hot lunch every day but it was taking too long so now the chef prepares meals and puts them in deli containers so you can grab and heat up whenever “lunch” is for you. And no doubt about it: this is to encourage people to get back to work and extract more productivity out of their day. So it’s not uncommon for folks to go offsite for lunch anyway, just to get a break.
posted by Doleful Creature at 5:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
When I used to work for a fairly large local accounting firm we'd have training once a month and trays of little sandwiches would be put all around the tables. I discovered that if a sandwich is cut into little triangles and prepared by someone else I can eat far too many of them, but I rarely make a sandwich for myself. It's possible I was being silently judged but thankfully I'm oblivious to that until someone makes it blatantly obvious by saying something subtle like 'leave some for the rest of us, guts ache' which no-one ever did because I would usually wait until after training and raid the fridge for leftovers like a civilised person.
At my current workplace the social committee does a sausage sizzle every few months and I admit to sometimes eating a sausage on all three of my breaks (particularly if I've forgotten to bring lunch on that day) but never the last one; also I just have the sausage and leave the bread for the others (the bread isn't cut into triangles, you see).
I've never stolen someone else's lunch out of the communal fridges, which happens with monotonous regularity according to the very unhappy emails that get sent out to everyone and is something I think is utterly vile, so I forgive myself for my sausage gluttony.
posted by h00py at 6:25 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
At my current workplace the social committee does a sausage sizzle every few months and I admit to sometimes eating a sausage on all three of my breaks (particularly if I've forgotten to bring lunch on that day) but never the last one; also I just have the sausage and leave the bread for the others (the bread isn't cut into triangles, you see).
I've never stolen someone else's lunch out of the communal fridges, which happens with monotonous regularity according to the very unhappy emails that get sent out to everyone and is something I think is utterly vile, so I forgive myself for my sausage gluttony.
posted by h00py at 6:25 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I think it's just part of the eternal quest for a free lunch.
posted by freakazoid at 7:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by freakazoid at 7:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I know I'm a little weird, because I work in an office with a lot of free food, and yet I hoard a lot of my own food. And everyone's like "why do you bring your own snacks, look at all these snacks we have!"
No, these are my snacks. These are what I want to eat. Stop looking at them they're mine.
So, yeah, there aren't tacos in my desk drawer, there's most of a 4.5lb bag of Hot Tamales. And I will cut you if you look at them.
posted by Katemonkey at 8:40 AM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
No, these are my snacks. These are what I want to eat. Stop looking at them they're mine.
So, yeah, there aren't tacos in my desk drawer, there's most of a 4.5lb bag of Hot Tamales. And I will cut you if you look at them.
posted by Katemonkey at 8:40 AM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
Anyway, I have induced everyone at my work to call the last of things the "Minnesota piece". Like, "hey, is anyone going to eat the Minnesota piece"? Or "I'm going to take the Minnesota donut if no one else wants it".
We call this "saving a piece for Canada"
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
We call this "saving a piece for Canada"
posted by phunniemee at 9:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
I wanna see data complied. I wanna see who does this by industry, region, income, and gender. It's positively fascinating!
The only time I've experienced this level of food aggression is when I was in high school at boarding school and it was grilled cheese and tomato soup night. The cook who was responsible wanted to stop because it made him so sad to watch kids fighting over their third of fourth grilled cheese. As an adult I've primarily worked in restaurants so it's a different set up completely from offices.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
The only time I've experienced this level of food aggression is when I was in high school at boarding school and it was grilled cheese and tomato soup night. The cook who was responsible wanted to stop because it made him so sad to watch kids fighting over their third of fourth grilled cheese. As an adult I've primarily worked in restaurants so it's a different set up completely from offices.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:31 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Ok, I've finally read the linked article. I have opinions! I used to be the food getter person at my office, now it's someone else, but I have a high level of control over how we do things here.
We're a pretty generous office when it comes to consumable perks. We've got a beer tap, a wine fridge, a bottomless fruit bowl and candy bowl, a fancy bean to cup coffee machine, and we're even getting a soda fountain soon. We have breakfast brought in once a month for big meetings, plus there are extra things from time to time (like yesterday when we had 6 dozen paczki).
We also just acquired a company and our office went from approx. 20 people to approx. 120 people, and the new folks came from a place that was extremely low kitchen perk. So I was expecting to have some problems. And we did! The first week. And not any more!
The trick is to have an in charge person (me) who is extremely assertive (me) who will say the exact same thing to an intern as they would to the CEO. Call out the antisocial behavior immediately, frame things in we statements eg "that's not what we do here," and, importantly, be present and engaged with the social aspect of the free food. It's not about the food food. It's a time to mingle with your coworkers over a delicious Polish treat! If you've identified someone as a Problem, call out their behavior but then also make a point of including them in a conversation so they're forced to see the people they work with as other people, and not as obstacles in the way of moar bagels.
It's also why we don't have problems with people taking things. If I happen to see that someone has secreted a box of pens at their desk, I'll just straight up say to them "Dude, we will provide all the pens you ever need--if we're low on pens we'll buy more pens. Why do you need a whole box of pens?" And what happens literally every time is that they say ok yeah I guess I don't really need the whole box and go put it back. Our HQ office has a problem with people taking things because they don't have anyone in that office who's comfortable approaching people and telling people no, you don't get to do that, we don't do that here, if you need something just ask for it, hoarding is unacceptable.
Basically I guess what I'm saying is yes people can suck, but if this is a recurring problem in your workplace the problem is your workplace.
posted by phunniemee at 11:03 AM on March 6, 2019 [13 favorites]
We're a pretty generous office when it comes to consumable perks. We've got a beer tap, a wine fridge, a bottomless fruit bowl and candy bowl, a fancy bean to cup coffee machine, and we're even getting a soda fountain soon. We have breakfast brought in once a month for big meetings, plus there are extra things from time to time (like yesterday when we had 6 dozen paczki).
We also just acquired a company and our office went from approx. 20 people to approx. 120 people, and the new folks came from a place that was extremely low kitchen perk. So I was expecting to have some problems. And we did! The first week. And not any more!
The trick is to have an in charge person (me) who is extremely assertive (me) who will say the exact same thing to an intern as they would to the CEO. Call out the antisocial behavior immediately, frame things in we statements eg "that's not what we do here," and, importantly, be present and engaged with the social aspect of the free food. It's not about the food food. It's a time to mingle with your coworkers over a delicious Polish treat! If you've identified someone as a Problem, call out their behavior but then also make a point of including them in a conversation so they're forced to see the people they work with as other people, and not as obstacles in the way of moar bagels.
It's also why we don't have problems with people taking things. If I happen to see that someone has secreted a box of pens at their desk, I'll just straight up say to them "Dude, we will provide all the pens you ever need--if we're low on pens we'll buy more pens. Why do you need a whole box of pens?" And what happens literally every time is that they say ok yeah I guess I don't really need the whole box and go put it back. Our HQ office has a problem with people taking things because they don't have anyone in that office who's comfortable approaching people and telling people no, you don't get to do that, we don't do that here, if you need something just ask for it, hoarding is unacceptable.
Basically I guess what I'm saying is yes people can suck, but if this is a recurring problem in your workplace the problem is your workplace.
posted by phunniemee at 11:03 AM on March 6, 2019 [13 favorites]
We've got a beer tap
I will never stop finding the free-beer-on-tap-at-work perk bizarre.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:16 AM on March 6, 2019 [14 favorites]
I will never stop finding the free-beer-on-tap-at-work perk bizarre.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:16 AM on March 6, 2019 [14 favorites]
phunniemee's case is an interesting combination with the one way upthread in which the food was fairly evenly shared because every seconds and thirds was publicly noticed and joshed over. Both of them show the social skill that business IME praises but won't usually enforce; one is ?mostly? centralized but might fail suddenly if phunnimee left; the mutual joshing should be resilient as people come and go and might even spread.
Lin Ostrom, we're still working on it.
posted by clew at 11:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Lin Ostrom, we're still working on it.
posted by clew at 11:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
hoarding is unacceptable
To the extent that I have stashes at my desk of office supplies, it is not because I want to hoard, but because they are durable and not consumable and I don't need them anymore. I have like 50 hanging file folders. I only need about 5, but I don't know where to put them so people know they are available. I am glad my office has a designated spot for food that is "up for grabs", even if it is just the break room tables. We need a supply reuse station. Hmm.
posted by soelo at 12:02 PM on March 6, 2019
To the extent that I have stashes at my desk of office supplies, it is not because I want to hoard, but because they are durable and not consumable and I don't need them anymore. I have like 50 hanging file folders. I only need about 5, but I don't know where to put them so people know they are available. I am glad my office has a designated spot for food that is "up for grabs", even if it is just the break room tables. We need a supply reuse station. Hmm.
posted by soelo at 12:02 PM on March 6, 2019
Man, I wish my workplace had free food apart from the very irregular "leftover meeting sandwiches in the break room" stuff. As it is, the office tradition on birthdays is that you bring in your own cake(s) for other people. Fucking barbarism.
I work in Germany now and that is the standard here. I don't mind it though because I get to try all this different German food. And everyone went nuts for my homemade chocolate chips cookies I brought in for my birthday (my coworkers said they looked just like in the movies! lol)
So a couple years ago, the employee lunch was canceled at the last minute because it was forecast to be nearly 100 degrees out, which is no weather for people to be either cooking over a grill, waiting in line for half an hour, or for condiments to sit out.
Lol this must not have been in the south.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:38 AM on March 7, 2019
I work in Germany now and that is the standard here. I don't mind it though because I get to try all this different German food. And everyone went nuts for my homemade chocolate chips cookies I brought in for my birthday (my coworkers said they looked just like in the movies! lol)
So a couple years ago, the employee lunch was canceled at the last minute because it was forecast to be nearly 100 degrees out, which is no weather for people to be either cooking over a grill, waiting in line for half an hour, or for condiments to sit out.
Lol this must not have been in the south.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:38 AM on March 7, 2019
I will never stop finding the free-beer-on-tap-at-work perk bizarre.The smaller scale alternative that i’ve preferred is a communal booze money pot that is kept in the designated booze fridge. If you like to drink with your colleagues put some money in the pot. On fridays go to the store and buy however much is afforded by the pot. Booze is open to anyone in the office. Leftover booze is what people drink between this Friday and next. Management can put more than their needed share into the pot for morale upkeep, people seem less likely to overhoard if it’s closer to stealing from their colleagues instead of “the company”, and it defrays some tension around company funds privileging a certain behavior like alcohol consumption.
Note: doesn’t scale beyond a certain size of office that can subsist on only one central booze fridge. Requires participation by reasonable adults.
posted by bl1nk at 4:02 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I work for a state university. The use of state and federal funds to buy food is not allowed at all ever. There is basically never free food anywhere unless a faculty or staff member makes or buys it themself and brings it to share. I got my PhD at a private university where there was just always free food everywhere, like all of your workplaces apparently. Here, the president has to ask the foundation to buy sugar cookies and green punch for graduation. It's a very different world. Occasionally, the Pearson or Macmillan rep buys Panera for a bunch of faculty in exchange for listening to a book pitch, and we get a brief glimpse of what the rest of you experience daily.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:51 AM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:51 AM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
I work for a museum that's part of a state university, and while we're also bound by the same rules, we have receptions here often that frequently involve a lot of leftover food. So you open the fridge and there'll be half a tray of cheese and fruit and five brownies and some fancy finger food that's a little bit soggy now but hey! No need to buy lunch today!
Occasionally, the company that prints our vinyl will treat us to a box of cookies from a local bakery and there will be much rejoicing. The cookies are big and...get this...some people cut them in half and that's all they take. Aliens walk among us.
We also bring in doughnuts and baked goods and have potlucks pretty frequently on our own volition, and occasionally the small foundation that's also a part of us treats us to lunch or breakfast. We're a very food-loving group here, although thankfully not to the point where people are spiriting away the box of doughnuts to their own desk to feast in private.
posted by PussKillian at 6:47 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Occasionally, the company that prints our vinyl will treat us to a box of cookies from a local bakery and there will be much rejoicing. The cookies are big and...get this...some people cut them in half and that's all they take. Aliens walk among us.
We also bring in doughnuts and baked goods and have potlucks pretty frequently on our own volition, and occasionally the small foundation that's also a part of us treats us to lunch or breakfast. We're a very food-loving group here, although thankfully not to the point where people are spiriting away the box of doughnuts to their own desk to feast in private.
posted by PussKillian at 6:47 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I will never stop finding the free-beer-on-tap-at-work perk bizarre.
The smaller scale alternative that i’ve preferred is a communal booze money pot that is kept in the designated booze fridge.
it's the concept of keeping alcohol in the workplace at all that seems the most bizarre to me. I've never experienced anything like that, any place that I've worked.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:15 AM on March 7, 2019 [7 favorites]
The smaller scale alternative that i’ve preferred is a communal booze money pot that is kept in the designated booze fridge.
it's the concept of keeping alcohol in the workplace at all that seems the most bizarre to me. I've never experienced anything like that, any place that I've worked.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:15 AM on March 7, 2019 [7 favorites]
I think it's almost exclusively a software development thing. And even then mostly Silicon Valley companies or startups that are trying to emulate the Silicon Valley companies.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:17 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by tobascodagama at 7:17 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I will never stop finding the free-beer-on-tap-at-work perk bizarre.
Yeah, first I've heard of this, and I'd like details. Where and what companies do this? Is the tap open to all, and available all day long? The result seems to me would be a negative and quite visible effect on the organization's productivity.
posted by Rash at 11:07 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
Yeah, first I've heard of this, and I'd like details. Where and what companies do this? Is the tap open to all, and available all day long? The result seems to me would be a negative and quite visible effect on the organization's productivity.
posted by Rash at 11:07 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
My current workplace has 1 beer tap & one cider tap (as part of a lineup including coldbrew coffee taps & kombucha taps; it's hardly all alcohol). Fairly mature mid-size Seattle startup.
Open to all & available all-day, though honestly they go largely untouched except for three occasions.
1. After-hours events (hosting tech meetups, board game night, etc.)
2. Friday end-of-day (I also run a sanctioned-but-unofficial miniature beer & cider tasting every Friday, partially to clear some of my cellar backlog; and some people want a full pour of something beyond tastings)
3. Office events (Monthly new-hire meet-and-greet happy hour, etc.)
Not that I would *necessarily* know, but I haven't seen anybody run into issues with it affecting productivity. (Honestly the well-functioning of the coldbrew is probably a greater effect on productivity)
We're all adults here & it can be expected that people are able to self-regulate. There's a strong sense of "Don't want to be like those startups which go overboard with alcohol" so we tend to make sure there's a balance of interesting non-alcoholic options for any event. (For the aforementioned new-hire happy hour, they've taken to bringing in a bartender with a couple signature cocktails, and some signature non-alcoholic cocktails which are usually great)
It's definitely weird stepping into, but it's also to an extent a hiring requirement, as noted above. Even if you aren't into kombucha or the like, engineers have enough of a pick of jobs that you want to see signs that the company budget is doing well.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:43 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Open to all & available all-day, though honestly they go largely untouched except for three occasions.
1. After-hours events (hosting tech meetups, board game night, etc.)
2. Friday end-of-day (I also run a sanctioned-but-unofficial miniature beer & cider tasting every Friday, partially to clear some of my cellar backlog; and some people want a full pour of something beyond tastings)
3. Office events (Monthly new-hire meet-and-greet happy hour, etc.)
Not that I would *necessarily* know, but I haven't seen anybody run into issues with it affecting productivity. (Honestly the well-functioning of the coldbrew is probably a greater effect on productivity)
We're all adults here & it can be expected that people are able to self-regulate. There's a strong sense of "Don't want to be like those startups which go overboard with alcohol" so we tend to make sure there's a balance of interesting non-alcoholic options for any event. (For the aforementioned new-hire happy hour, they've taken to bringing in a bartender with a couple signature cocktails, and some signature non-alcoholic cocktails which are usually great)
It's definitely weird stepping into, but it's also to an extent a hiring requirement, as noted above. Even if you aren't into kombucha or the like, engineers have enough of a pick of jobs that you want to see signs that the company budget is doing well.
posted by CrystalDave at 11:43 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
I work for a state university. The use of state and federal funds to buy food is not allowed at all ever. There is basically never free food anywhere unless a faculty or staff member makes or buys it themself and brings it to share. I got my PhD at a private university where there was just always free food everywhere, like all of your workplaces apparently. Here, the president has to ask the foundation to buy sugar cookies and green punch for graduation. It's a very different world.
It frustrates me so much that the public gets mad if government workers get a tray of Jimmy John's during a four hour finance meeting but they think it's great that the highly paid job disruptor class get fancy catering and free booze. "Oooh, my taxes shouldn't pay for your lunch, lazy selfish feeder at the state teat," they cry, because they seem to think that somehow the luxuries offered in the tech sector are free and don't get rolled into costs.
Of course, actual poor people don't get any food at all - you don't even get the occasional all-school retreat or finance year-end pizza lunch if you're working at McDonald's or mopping floors. To those that have shall be given, from those that lack shall be taken away.
posted by Frowner at 12:28 PM on March 7, 2019 [10 favorites]
Frowner, I did my fellowship at the VA, where we weren't allowed to have a water cooler. Because god forbid federal workers stay hydrated with something other than a Legionella-infested water fountain.
posted by basalganglia at 1:38 PM on March 7, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 1:38 PM on March 7, 2019 [6 favorites]
My last job was at a small software/hardware company and we had beers in the cooler and most of the groups kept a few bottles out on file cabinets for whomever wanted a drink during the day. We also had a beer exchange club where people would bring in a case of 24 beers and swap with the other people in the group. This was a few years ago before it was easy to buy individual six-packs or singles in Pennsylvania so it was nice to be able to try a beer without buying 24 of them at a time.
Now I work for a Hospital/Healthcare system and we're strictly alcohol free on the premises but there is a bar directly below our floor for happy hour drinks.
posted by octothorpe at 2:20 PM on March 7, 2019
Now I work for a Hospital/Healthcare system and we're strictly alcohol free on the premises but there is a bar directly below our floor for happy hour drinks.
posted by octothorpe at 2:20 PM on March 7, 2019
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