Lunch with co workers or other groups

[JLTraveling]

It’s just us in there. It’s an elementary school, so kids only come to the Library with their class.

The kids eat with their class in the cafeteria.

I ate in the library all through high school. My friend's mom was the librarian, and about 6 of us ate lunch and played cards, board games, or D&D every day in her office (private school, we had an hour).

Now I work from home on a geographically distributed team, so no option to eat with coworkers. Instead, I usually have lunch with my retired father. I enjoy it.

 

[awalker1015]

I usually go out to lunch with my boss or other department managers. I enjoy the discourse. I work in a private office so my lunch I’m usually ready to engage with others.

 

[disneychrista]

Yes. My department does Birthday Lunches. We also did lunch/gift exchange thing for Christmas.

In addition there are also company wide potlucks several times a year. I usually don't participate in those.

 

[Snowflakey]

no - it's bad enough I have to work with them 8 hours a day, why would I want to eat with them? LOL JK

 

[BagOLaughs]

Fortunately in my company going to eat in the canteen is perfectly acceptable. We're lucky, as we're a 2000 people strong factory and offices site we have 2 canteens. Also the grounds around the site are beautiful so we can go for a walk if the weather is nice. Makes us much more productive in the afternoon after eating! You can of course, eat at your desk if you're so inclined but its nice to get away from the desk and computer!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I have one coworker I eat lunch with a couple times a month. A couple others I eat with less frequently. I buy for my department every couple of months.

The 7 of us on my floor that do a monthly pot luck.

 

[Cubbiecakes]

I've found that socializing with my cow-orkers is very uncomfortable as I do employee analytics... I know how everyone is "doing" at their job, and it's hard to steer conversation away from that. I'm generally involved with upcoming changes/terminations/hires so I try to avoid work talk altogether, but I'm also a private person and would prefer not to discuss my private life, either. That means I usually end up listening the whole time, or talking about vacations/Disney/cruises, which gives people the wrong idea ("Oh, Cubbiecakes is on vacation again? Do they every work? Why would an adult go to Disney?")

 

[mco65]

When i worked in the office i would go out and eat lunch with coworkers several times a week. There were certainly times when i wanted to be alone but many times i truly enjoyed the company... and conversation or gossip as it may be..
Now that i work from home that is one of the things i miss most about office work. The people... i used to go into the office a few times a year just to visit and have lunch with my work friends, but i don't do that any more.. I am so accustomed to working from home now.. my lunch hour is comprised of taking a shower and doing some dishes or laundry, then grabbing a sandwich as i sit back down to work!

 

[mrodgers]

I try not to have lunch with people too often. Lol. I like to wander off alone. My quota is once a week with coworkers. Twice max.

Wow, once a week, twice a week is max and that is not too often?

Last time I went to lunch other than a planned work lunch was 1994 when I interned at Heinz and we would walk over to the Strip District in Pittsburgh.

Now I don't get a lunch break very often as I can't shut down equipment to "go to lunch". I eat while I work 90% of the time (not today, lunch break right now as I am cleaning out equipment.)

Production crew isn't allowed to leave the facility for lunch. I can leave, but our lunch is paid time and I would have to clock out. I'm not staying an extra hour so I can take 25 minutes to get somewhere, 25 minutes to get back, and gobble food as quickly as I can for the 10 minutes I have left. I'd have to work 1.5 hours anyways to cover the cost of going somewhere to eat every day plus the extra 1 hour to cover for leaving over the hour or 2 I already work over. In other words, leaving for lunch for an hour would cost me 2-2.5 hours worth of income.

A few times a month, I’ll eat out withe coworkers. Otherwise, I eat in the break room and chat with anyone who joins me.

There's the other thing. I'm not allowed to eat in the breakroom because I'm daylight. I don't anyways as I am usually running equipment but other coworkers on daylight have been told they can't eat in the breakroom with the shift people.

 

[Keli]

I'm sitting here at my desk eating lunch and surfing the net right now. And it's what I do nearly every other workday too, lol. My team will go out to lunch for someone's birthday and it's fine, I usually try to be chatty enough to keep the conversation flowing but quiet enough to let everyone else talk more than me. I don't enjoy it that much to be honest. I only do it to be a team player and to keep morale up in the department. Right now I am having to leave my door half open because folks are out in my dept and I don't want anyone needing some help and no one being around to help them. Usually I like to shut my door and get an hour of peace without any coworker interruptions. And I like these folks, it's just that social interaction takes so much energy when you are naturally socially awkward. It's so much easier to shut the door and let the pressure off, lol.

 

[bcla]

Depends on where I was working at the time. I'm kind of in a different situation right now where I work from home most of the time, but we're setting up a new office with only a few people. We haven't really gotten to the point where we'll typicallly be in the office most days, but I suspect that we will eventually be at that point.

I remember back when my employer had a cafeteria and lunch was provided. We'd still go out, but sometimes I grabbed something to take back to my desk or I sat with another group to get to know what they were doing.

But yeah there had always been times where someone asked who wanted to go out to lunch together. It could be as few as two people together or even groups as large as 20. Some employers had a budget where we could choose something to do. One time it was Dave & Busters where we were told anything on the menu was OK, including alcohol.

The oddest is working in a place where so many people have so many different dietary restrictions - especially Hindu who won't eat beef. I guess Red Robin has a veggie burger. Earlier in my career we were with a group of junior employees and I typically bought a Sunday paper with a coupon for the Black Angus steakhouse chain that was good for up to 6 people. So one guy would come up to me asking if I had it, and we'd all go together. Even the guy from India who didn't eat beef. I think they had grilled chicken and maybe even a vegetarian entree.