I’m uhm, kind of strange. I have always liked sending food off with my SO such that he can share it with people at work. I have had some interesting mixed reactions over time. So, what would ya’ll think of it? If you want to, explain your answer in comments.
Weird isn’t bad, by the way. 🙂 Depends on what sort of food, and how often, and stuff. I’ve had all sorts of coworkers bring in (say) homemade cookies and stuff, I don’t think I’ve ever had a coworker bring in like meal-type food from home, but could be nifty, presuming it was something that I like to eat (I’m mostly not a picky eater, but the whole most-seafood-is-not-my-kink thing gets in the way now and again.)
I love food from people’s homes. You get an idea of who they are outside of work that way – and I’ve been lucky enough to work with an ethnically diverse group of guys. As a matter of fact, the 11 person UNIX team at EDS had six guys who’s mother tongue wasn’t English. The food is YUMMY.
Many of the places I’ve worked had had frequent pot luck lunches. Of course there is always that random guy who can’t cook and doesn’t have an SO – but SOMEBODY needs to bring the paper plates and drinks so it generally works out.
At WAPA, we had two full kitchens in the building and quarterly they would host some sort of cooking contest. . . a chili cookoff, or a dessert contest or something. That was very tasty.
So no, bringing food from home is not wierd. It is good, and should be done often.
Presentation would have a lot to do with my reaction. People who bring zucchini or tomatoes from their garden and put it on my desk and say “Here you go!” annoy me because of the presumption that I could make use of and would want it.
However, last week a co-worker sent email saying “I made a whole mess of noodles and they turned out really well so I wanted to share them with people. There’s tamarind, lemon and spicy veggie–they’re at the end of my cube, come down and have some.” And that rocked. Plus, who doesn’t like lemon noodle?
I love your coyote!!
Hee!
Did you see the report? Apparently it was a hot day in Chicago, and she stopped by the Quiznos and crawled into the refrigerated drink bin until Animal Control stopped by and took her away.
And this one is the coyote on the Max at the Portland airport.
Alot of it has to do with what sort of work enviroment….people share food at my work (spa) regularly…but in other work spaces, I could see it being more awkward.
Most folks also can’t cook for me given various diet restrictions, so unless they are making a special effort, usually I won’t eat it. But I love food 🙂
T.
I made vegetarian! Alright alright… I know you have more rules than that… 😉 If you worked with Noah I would find a way to make you food. 😛
Didn’t answer, because it depends on the food. Treats and sweeties — cookies, brownies et al — sure. Fresh fruit, absolutely. Main dishes, no; it seems like a breach of the home/work barrier. Don’t know why, that’s just the way it feels.
See, this is what I’ve always been a bit confused about. (Not trying to attack you.) If this isn’t an inappropriate question: did you grow up on the poorer end or more middle class? It has seemed to me that guys are more likely to accept actual food regardless of socio-economic status growing up, but a lot of more middle class women feel uncomfortable about it. I have yet to find someone who has spent much time going hungry who will turn down a free meal provided it is something they *will* eat. (Vegetarians turn down meat stuff regardless sort of thing.)
Do you think it would be different for you if it were in a smaller environment vs. a larger office environment? Such as: if when Greenery had maybe 5 employess you knew them all and one of the SOs of a coworker liked to make a bunch of food–would that be different than in a generic large work environment?
I also tend to send food specifically with the people I know in mind and not with the attitude of “put it on a table in the break room” sort of thing.
Grew up upper middle class.
No, I don’t think it’s a smaller-vs.-larger thing. However, I’m very prickly about workplaces that try to act like families; work is work and home is home, and if I’m going to go to an office (which I’ve spent relatively little time in my life doing), I want it to be entirely separate from my home life.
Something like the pot-lucks someone mentioned here sounds like a decent compromise; that wouldn’t bug me too much, since I could plan for it and brace myself for having to pretend that my coworkers were my friends for an hour.
But someone just showing up with a pot of chili and expecting me to eat it — no, that would bug me. I make my own accommodations for food when I’m going to an office, and I mostly like to be left alone to eat — whether it’s taking my bag lunch into an empty room where I can sit and read, or going out to eat a bowl of pho by myself with a book. Eating group food would involve hanging out with the group, and that’s the last thing I want to spend my lunch hour doing.
Amusingly, despite me sending food with my SOs, that is very much how I feel about my job. I do go to the pot lucks every Friday, but I go long enough to grab food and go back to my room. I don’t socialize with my coworkers much because I’m nervous about crossing a line and telling them things about my life I shouldn’t.
I do go grab the food though, and say thank you, before eating it on my own.
If it were main dishes, it would seem a bit awkward to me if it were repeated frequently. Pretty much anything else gets the “yay! yum!” or the “er, not my thing, or not today, but I appreciate the sentiment” depending on whether or not it’s something I’d like to eat. I understand the random “made too much of this lovely thing, take it to the office” solution, but not as a deliberate endeavor very often.
Do you think it would make a difference to you if you knew the person bringing it in? Like I sent email to the people I know at Noah’s company telling them that I made food and I would like to share it with them. They are the same people I invite over for dinner anyway.
Just curious. 🙂
It makes a huge difference. Then it’s a friend sending food, not some random coworker’s wife/SO. I went hungry often enough earlier in life that being able to clothe/feed/shelter myself is a big deal to me feeling capable and adult, and I don’t easily surrender that responsibility to people I don’t know well. Unless the random coworker and his/her SO are people I’m already friends with, I will generally thank them but not partake of a full meal. Unless it’s my favoritest thing ever. (Ruled by my stomach? Not I! I can stop any time I want….)
Even in the case of the friends sending food, though, I would feel awkward about it eventually unless I reciprocated, and that might place enough of a burden (hands, money, etc.) on me that I might feel resentful or conflicted about it over time.
Someone’s reaction may depend on their cultural background. WASPs tend to just not share food all that much. Italians share all kinds of food all the damn time. Same with people from Arab countries and South American countries. But Northern Europeans just don’t seen to do this too often. Dunno why.
I also think that socio-economic background plays into the situation. Most people who have gone hungry to any serious degree in their lifetime will accept food much more eagerly, at least in my experience.
None of the above.
I would be excited to try it. But might not take a full helping. I like trying new food and I would think the SO who sent all that food was really into cooking, so it would further my excitement of the potentially yummy food.
If it wasn’t very good, I might give them another chance, but then I would politely turn it down, but if it was good, I would be excited every time.
I have often brought in massive amounts of food for my co-workers, as I love to cook. I don’t thik it’s weird and they never complain.
I believe that the size of the company has something to do with it. Say for instance, where I am currently leaving…we have 10 employees and they LOVE it when someone brings in home cooked food or store bought food. One person even brings in fresh caught fish for everyone to take home. We act very much like a family and still maintain a great amount of autonomy. I’ve come to understand what I can say about myself at the workplace and what to keep to myself.
I have also worked at a larger office – and there is no way I would have brought anything but maybe a batch of cookies I had baked and that would most likely be only for my department.
As for the socio-economic view…I’ve seen it go both ways. I remember a girl that obviously had it worse off than everyone else, single mom of 2, and didn’t want charity. She looked at it as if it were charity even though everyone was welcome to the yums. Pride can make you think weird things.
Thank you very much for countering with a different view of the socio-economic issue. I like being told when I’m not seeing the whole picture. 🙂
It’s also a function of how well the person cooks. If its only all right than yay its free, but for instance, standing order at the house in mountainview was that if invited us for brunch the answer was “yes” and folks would clear their schedules if necessary.
for me, it would depend on the kind of food….
appetizer or hor’s d’oeuvre type things-awesome.
something like a full dinner would probably be a little awkward, mostly because I would feel uncomfortable taking that quantity of food from someone I didn’t know without anything to share in return.
Our office is about 250 employees, I think, FWIW. And then our company has other offices around the world. It’s not unusual for someone to bring in food either baked by them or by their SO, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get a funny look for doing that. Usually, though, it’s sweet dessert-type foods, though — cookies, lemon bars, etc., and they get shared around the office. One guy’s wife seems to often make muffins or cookies or something when he has a presentation to make, so his presentations often include yummy food. 🙂
It’s perhaps slightly more odd for someone to be able to present an entire free meal (usually lunch). Usually when that happens, it’s leftover food that was brought in for some lunch meeting. I suspect lunches are less common because they share less well — it’s hard to provide lunch for 30 people, but *cookies* for 30 people is pretty easy. So, if you provide lunch, you may end up excluding a lot of folks. Also, sometimes people have lunch plans, that’s kind of unpredictable.
Liz takes my cooking with her to school often to show it off. Not sure if she shares much of it but the feedback has been quite positive. =)
In my workplace, we did potlucks occasionally for small staff meetings or birthdays when it was just the small service team getting together (6 people max, usually just 3). If we’d gotten to talking about a certain kind of foodstuff and someone says “I’ll bring some in”, then yeah, we’d try it whether it was the co-worker or the co-worker’s SO (the assumption being the better cook, at least for that dish, would be the one making it).
I will sometimes bring in bread or treats I’ve made, mostly because I like making them but I don’t need to eat it all at home. I don’t expect everyone in my workplace to chow it all down. We have a staff room where I can set food out and put a sign next to it saying everyone’s welcome to it. I make it available, people can decide for themselves, and because I’m not standing around next to it all day, nobody’s feelings are hurt about eating it or not.
Depends on the food and the timing.