Stupid work lunches

[accountingsucks]

This doesn't happen too often (thankfully) - at work sometimes someone from another dep't that we deal with will invite us out to a paid lunch. Now you would think that this is great, but I hate it with a passion. It's always the same premise - "let's go out for a nice lunch", but within 5 minutes it's all about work. DO NOT take up my 1 hour lunch with a working lunch...if you want to talk to me about work, then set up a meeting, but don't do it over a "friendly" lunch. Of course all these lunches end up creating more work for our department as they always have "little" requests or "favors".

19 years to FIRE..........

[BunsGettingFirm]

Could have been worse. Could have been 3 hours worth of dinner. Try keeping your mind focused after a 9-hour day + a 3 hour dinner in which wine flowed freely. This is why when Saluki9 expressed some admiration for his investment banking friends' trips aboard a G5 and stays at the Four Seasons, I piped in and said, yeah, no thanks, or thanks, but 3 times would be enough so that I can have some cool stories to tell my friends.

[HFWR]

"stupid work" is redundant...

[LOL!]

If lunch was a working lunch, then go home early. I like the free food and the camaraderie of my colleagues at these lunches. If you don't like the people you are working with, get the hell out. Now.

Also if work poisons you, don't poison us by telling us about it. Please.

[accountingsucks]

Originally Posted by LOL!

If lunch was a working lunch, then go home early. I like the free food and the camaraderie of my colleagues at these lunches. If you don't like the people you are working with, get the hell out. Now.

Also if work poisons you, don't poison us by telling us about it. Please.

LOL...if you ever worked in a corporate environment at more than a junior position, you'd know that telling your boss you are leaving early because of a working lunch would get you fired in 5 seconds flat.

Also...why do you think people post here? It's not b/c they love their jobs.

[Spanky]

I really do not like people keep schedule a meeting from 11 to to 1. When you get out of the meeting, the cafeteria closes. It would be nice if food is provided.

[tryan]

I used to bill w*rking meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner) back to the customer. Beats sitting in my office!

[brewer12345]

Heh, at least you get away for lunch every day for an hour. I've had about 1 lunch hour a year in my current job.

[Celany]

Originally Posted by accountingsucks

LOL...if you ever worked in a corporate environment at more than a junior position, you'd know that telling your boss you are leaving early because of a working lunch would get you fired in 5 seconds flat.

I can't speak for all corporate environments, but not necessarily. I used to think so too, but I've been getting burned out lately & after one of those kinds of affairs, I went to the gym for an hour (my gym is right next door, & I usually go there for lunch, but couldn't, due to the working-lunch). I flat-out told my boss I was going for an hour, because of the working lunch. She wasn't exactly thrilled, but she didn't say 'no' either.

I think that a lot of times, people get too timid & let themselves get exploited, which leads to becoming even more timid & getting more exploited.

Obviously, it depends on the field. If workers are a dime a dozen, & are easy to replace, then it's a lot easier to force everyone to go through stupid crap.

But, if you're a good worker, then you should be able to push back when crap like that comes up, at least some of the time.

[saluki9]

Originally Posted by accountingsucks

LOL...if you ever worked in a corporate environment at more than a junior position, you'd know that telling your boss you are leaving early because of a working lunch would get you fired in 5 seconds flat.

Also...why do you think people post here? It's not b/c they love their jobs.

Hey, In love my job and I post here.

Sure there are times you have to go to lunches and dinners that you don't want to. That's part of life. That being said, my grandfather's would look at my work "problems" and laugh at me compared to what they had to deal with in their time.

[Rich_in_Tampa]

Originally Posted by tryan

I used to bill w*rking meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner) back to the customer. Beats sitting in my office!

You used to bill the actual cost of the food (as opposed to the time) to the customer if you decided to meet over your lunch hour?

And that's OK?

I must be old-fashioned...

[saluki9]

Originally Posted by Rich_in_Tampa

You used to bill the actual cost of the food (as opposed to the time) to the customer if you decided to meet over your lunch hour?

And that's OK?

I must be old-fashioned...

People bill travel expenses all the time. Most of those include food too.

[Rich_in_Tampa]

Originally Posted by saluki9

People bill travel expenses all the time. Most of those include food too.

Where does travel come in here? Sounds like they were just hanging around the office, meeting through the lunch hour, and having lunch on the customer's tab. Hence "Beats sitting in my office!"

Food expenses during out of town travel, sure; but doesn't sound that way to me here.

[Martha]

I never billed meals, even meals during travel, to a client. I always thought that was unseemly and should be part of overhead.

[tryan]

You used to bill the actual cost of the food (as opposed to the time)

Was refering to the time ... but since most of these "meetings" required travel, the food would be paid via the travel perdium (indirectly billed to the customer).

Any inter-office lunch "meeting" would be taken out of hide (food and time).

[roadkill]

A number of years ago during the course of our year end audit, I was invited out to lunch by the audit manager of the large international accounting firm conducting the audit. He picked up the tab, or so I thought. He actually billed the meal back to the company as a part of their out of pocket expenses. I guess there is no free lunch after all.

[Meadbh]

I am frequently expected to attend meetings over lunchtime. In our organization we are not allowed to bill for catering unless it is "outside workikng hours", ie. prior to 0800 or after 1700. So usually this means a missed meal. Personally, I do not think it fair to expect people to routinely forgo meal breaks in the name of work. Employees have won lawsuits about this. Having to be up all night looking after patients and working through the next day isn't fair, or safe, either. But life is not always fair!

[Nords]

Originally Posted by Meadbh

But life is not always fair!

I always enjoyed trying to sit down to a good hearty meal just before the general alarm went off. Or learning that I'd converted from a three-section watchbill to port & stbd while we raced to the MEDEVAC site.

But if employers are trying to find non-cash methods of retaining their highly valued employees, the lunchtime meeting sends (at best) a mixed signal. Presumably these higher managers got to their positions by dint of their advanced time-management skills, including being able to forecast the need for a meeting and to determine a less-inconvenient time to have it. Loyalty & respect are two-way streets...

[HobbyDave]

Originally Posted by Nords

But if employers are trying to find non-cash methods of retaining their highly valued employees, the lunchtime meeting sends (at best) a mixed signal. Presumably these higher managers got to their positions by dint of their advanced time-management skills, including being able to forecast the need for a meeting and to determine a less-inconvenient time to have it. Loyalty & respect are two-way streets...

I think it's going to depend on the employees, manager, how much people enjoy chatting about their job, etc.

I'm a manager of a software development team, and I know everyone is always enthusiastic when I have extra cash available for a lunch.

• People like free food
• We usually go to more expensive places than most people eat for lunch (IE, nicer pizza joint such as Lou Malnati's or CPK rather than cheap eats)
• While you might not like coding on a deadline, chatting about future development ideas people have is fun. We got into the profession usually because we do like coding.
• Rarely do meeting lunches consist of 100% business. People tend to get side tracked and chat about whatever.
• We like each other on our team, so hanging out isn't painful.

Anyway, I think it depends on a lot of things. If someone just wants to use the lunch hour to get a meeting in where they couldn't fit it in otherwise, then it may be rude. If it's someone trying to treat their team and get a nice long informal meeting out of it, it can be a good break in a day.