Can someone explain to me why so many people enjoy free work lunches? A friend of mine, who is in her late 40s, posted how excited she was to get the meal in this picture catered by work. If it's not this, it's a tray of sandwiches or something...
Maybe I'm being a dick, but someone serving me this as a "perk" of my job at 50 years old would trigger a complete existential crisis in me. Is saving $5 at lunch so exciting that it's a thrill to sit at your desk and chow down on this?
depends on the catering company. if it's some premium shit that actually has choices and tastes good it'd be nice.
If it's some sodeaux or w/e it's called I'll pass
well seeing as how you don't even buy your own food yet, let alone pay rent, why you don't "get it" is perfectly understandable.
Oh, I must have stumbled upon OP's personal blog, astounding! What a faggot!
This post is too deep for the majority of this board, which is predominantly made up of of NEETs, to fully comprehend.
My father works for an energy company that has had catering for all their staff for decades. The company did a study in the late 80s and found that it actually saved money since people took far shorter lunch breaks, and often talked about work during lunch. Of course when your employees are engineers, lawyers, and project managers making 6 figure incomes, they're time really is so valuable that it becomes cost effective, most companies don't have that.
i've worked for home depot for 4 years now. no company i've worked for randomly gives us food as much as they do. its not generally high end and might be something as mediocre as dominos or blimpies, but having someone do something nice for you - even if it isn't great - is a nice touch.
the store manager went to a nice bakery and got all ~140 or so people in the store a pie last thanksgiving. that was pretty awesome.
I make plenty of money to buy my own decent lunches, and take some time away from the office to take a break midday. I don't have to get excited about a few dollars saved for lunch.
This is part of the problem... I'm talking about from an employee standpoint, not a business standpoint. If I owned a business, I'd love the additional productivity and expectation that no one will be "wasting" my labor costs by taking a full lunch hour. I'm sure the food costs for most companies don't outweigh the production of their workers for that time saved.
As an employee, this wouldn't excite me. This food looks miserable, like middle school cafeteria tier.
If a small thing like this would trigger an existential crisis in you, you have far larger problems, my friend.
That said, I'm suspicious of any company that caters breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They do this to make you work longer hours and harder. It's one part of drinking the kool-aid for the "company culture" Fuck that cult like shit.
>tfw I work for a great company that doesn't make me feel like I have to drink the company kool-aid
We had a catered pre-Thanksgiving party though. It was dank as shit.
Are you 12? Free food is the best man. Come on
My work got Panera catered and pizza from a really nice place. I just saved $10 bucks and didn't have to go anywhere. Not to shabby.
They also got everyone cake on birthday. The fat ladies were more excited it was my birthday just cause cake.
Like I was saying, at almost 50 years old, eating this shit and being happy enough to post it on social media as an example of your company "treating you right" is the issue here. That's the existential crisis, that you made it more than half of your life expectancy and the best you can do to muster some degree of excitement is post shit that had the same quality when you had this slopped onto your tray when you were 12.
No, I seriously need this explained to me. I really, just can't get why food is better because it's free, if it's shitty. Is it just a persistent need to eat all the time? I like food, it's why I post on Veeky Forums, but what about this is supposed to inspire excitement?
I feel like a fucking sperg here, but I really don't get it. Something flavorful and awesome is different, but just cramming bland shit down your gullet while you work, and being excited for the privilege, baffles me.
Look up Google or Facebook lunches. The lunch in the OP doesn't look mearly as good.
it does look like a nice meal.
its not as though i'd enjoy not having that lunch more than i did enjoy having that lunch.
i wouldn't be 'excited' i guess, but it'd be convenient and pleasant.
i'm not saying it's a deal-maker, or it's absence a deal-breaker, but, by definition it IS a perk. not a great big one, but, it's nice.
i'm not sure who you hang out with that they're thrilled and peeing themselves over it, but you know, a 401k doesn't really bring you much joy 6 months after you start working for them.
you have a nice meal brought to you, you don't have to pack anything, or go anywhere. you don't even have to eat breakfast, you can just drink coffee until lunch and then have something light later that night. that's nice.
sometimes it's the little things that count.
it might not be the best food you ever ate but it's certainly edible and wholesome. a roll with butter, a cup of slaw with shrimp, a couple slices of turkey breast, what appear to be fresh beans, some mashed potatoes with gravy, a slice of apple pie, and a can of classic coca cola.
i don't see how you can hate on that. it's NOT cafeteria tier, that's for sure, it's honestly above applebees tier or whatever because of how reserved and functional it is.
it's a nice meal.
this, if someones giving you food that's never a negative.
jeeze louis that's conceited of you to say. being depressed and touchy about your life of work isn't 'deep', that's just an expression of MTV cultural programming that makes all people feel empty at all times so that they constantly seize upon the provided outlets (purchasing products) to fill the hole in their heart and mind. you think you'd be happier with a hotter girlfriend, a better job, a faster car, but it's always in the future, it's never just taking a moment to enjoy a nice free lunch.
you're not feeling angsty and empty because of the free lunch, but because of your inability to appreciate it.
there's an endemic sickness in our society and facebook is a great place to go and watch it unfold.
but what if, what if they silly empty headed people are simply enjoying their nice lunch?
what if they're not sitting there, as you seem to presume, thinking, "the horror, the horror, a life of shuffling spreadsheets, eating a nice free lunch, what is life? what is it? i could have been einstein or vivaldi or paganini or babe ruth, instead i'm just another human being with a small life that passes quickly! curse the day that i was born!"
nope, they're just running around, la-la-la, free lunch, post facebook, haha, cat pictures.
maybe they're really not having a problem. maybe you're trying to avoid your fear of becoming what you describe in such a personal and detailed way, inoculating yourself against an unpleasant future.
what's the point of saying 'free food doesn't taste better, what the fuck oh my god, are you poor? i can just PAY for better food!" they like a nice free meal. it's not bad. they wanted to tell people that it was nice.
maybe what you're sperging about is a basic inability to see the pleasure that normal people are able to take in small things in their life, without trying to compare it to some grand picture of a world that they feel the need to be unique or fulfilled in. they just are.
and i think you envy their innocent just-isness.
Yeah, no doubt that those are great, but most companies aren't Google or Facebook. They're the exception to the rule.
I'm OP, and I work in a pretty significant Fortune 500 company, but even still, I see people in our offices get super excited about low quality free food and I don't get it. We make decent money and have access to a lot of good things nearby.
I'm sounding like a dick, I know, but the thing that excites me most about "lunch" is getting away from the office for a bit, doing something away from my desk. It's definitely why I hate being provided lunch, because then people question why you're leaving to take your break when there's all of that free food there.
it sounds like you have some deep seated malaise affecting you, and you want to escape from it, or don't like your job, don't like people in general, don't like your coworkers. you sound unhappy.
its a free lunch. how does this in any way cause you consternation, or scorn, or negative thoughts and feelings?
it's important to feel gratitude for the things that we have in our life, without it, we become bitter, resentful, frustrated.
OP again, these are good posts, and I guess a better perspective than I was expecting.
I have a strong desire to get the most out of life. Simplicity bothers me, because I think you have a limited time to do what you can, and tomorrow you might die. But a lot of other people don't.
I do see life as a grand picture, but maybe it's reasonable to just accept the idea that people are just happy moving about in their less grandiose mindset.
Today is the day that I got valuable life insight from Veeky Forums.
OP,
You still sound like a dick.
> less grandiose mindset.
Stop it with this flowerly bullshit. People can be fulfilled by whatever they find meaning in, just like you. There is no lesser or greater grandiose mindset.
Stop being a faggot.
how about you take some valueble fuck off insight from Veeky Forums too OP, you faggot
Also I'd like to point out a lot of people don't have very high expectations for food. I've been cooking a long time and have developed a picky palette, but if you sit there and pick apart everything thats wrong you won't get to enjoy anything about it.
Your friend just works for a shitty company
I used to get catered local pizza, jimmy johns, local bbq (best fucking pulled pork ive ever had), baja fresh, a chinese place that was right next door
At christmas we all got a full T-Bone steak
Why are you complaining? That food looks decent enough to me.
Two nice thick slices of what looks like turkey, some mashed potatoes with green beans and gravy, a bread roll with butter, a prawn cocktail and a lice of pie along with a can of that sugary muck you lot drink.
What's not to like? Some people struggle to make eds meet outside work and a decent cheap and nutritious lunch like that can make all the difference. Apart from that, it's good to know that a company are prepared to do something good for their employees.
Yes, you are a dick, a grade-A dick.
> sodeaux
WTF is that?
>This food looks miserable, like middle school cafeteria tier.
What do you want for free, you ungrateful twat? Something like this so you can get fired for sleeping off your lardy lunch in the afternoon?
How the fuck do you manage to squeeze your massive fucking cranium through average sized door-frames?
Ditch the soda and you've got a pretty well balanced meal.
>tfw work paid for massages today
This is a good post.
A CATERED LUNCH IS NOT ONLY AN ENJOYED COST SAVINGS BY THE EMPLOYEE BUT AN EFFECTIVE MORALE BOOSTING PRACTICE AS EVIDENCED BY YOUR ASSOCIATES NUMEROUS POSTINGS.
Without the bread, apple pie, and potatoes you ignorant fuck.
When I worked at Target the frequently bought us stuff from "Chic-fil-a", local Mexican restaurants, Dominoes, other local pizza and ice cream places. It was really good and I loved working early or working late on those days to stock up on food. At the end of the day whoever was working could take home whatever they wanted. I love food, especially if it's free.
Is there something wrong with bread, apple pie, or potatoes?
The calories in soda are just pure sugar and nothing else.
tfw to smart to appreciate a free meal
It's Chick-fil-a
Since when?
no it's not, i just ate there.
Oh my god that looks abo-fucking-lutely delicious. Maybe it's the low class me speaking, but I'm lucky if I even get lunch at all!
Shit, I'm lucky if I had a job at all but not everyone gets one where I live because there are basically none left! Furthermore I'm completely fucking destroyed by social anxiety and clinical (I guess co-morbid too) depression.
Yeah, you are a dick. Eat your lunch and be happy you don't have to feel like someone chopped your guts up with a lawnmower every fucking day before you get out your front door, in addition to an endless other symptoms.
Endless list of other symptoms*
Christ. Complaining about feeling like a "dog for the corporation". Well if you don't like it, quit and start your own business instead of whining like a fucking baby about these made-up problems.
Do you have memory problems?
get your healthy thinking out of here.
OP if a good thing is not up to your standards you must continue to hate on it. Never compromise on your happiness.