My team and business partners are not co-located. Finding a time to lunch can be challenging, because since everyone's scattered a common lunch time is impossible. At home I can zip up to the kitchen, grab something or throw something together, and then dash back down to my home office to eat at my desk as I participate in virtual midday meetings. With RTO are you guys doing the same, except using the breakroom?
34 replies (most recent on top)
@1erb+1fSLrit
“…You are legally allowed that break and have every right to decline whatever meeting is being scheduled if it overlaps that time.”
I most certainly do legally have that right, but it’s at will employment and management also has the right to find ways to get rid of me or sideline me. (Even though we’d all know exactly why they did it.) It would be next to impossible to prove they sidelined me because I didn’t attend meetings over lunch when management scheduled them - they’d find another “reason”/excuse - but it would happen all the same.
I eat alone, whether I go out or eat in the office. I don't know another soul in this place. When I go in, I'm at the office for 9 hours total. At 11am each day, I drop everything and have lunch. I return at noon. It's blocked on my calendar, and not negotiable unless production is down. No more working through lunch for me. I only do that at home.
I just have to respond to this. I’m truly not qualified to speak on RTO lunch troubles because I’ve been customer facing the ENTIRE pandemic, but… that’s my role and so be it.
But… is the WFH life truly that privileged that you have to visit this forum to ask how to have lunch now that you’ve come back to the office?
You should work from a branch on the 1st or 3rd or 15th or end of the month and worrying about getting a lunch. I’d love to see how you run out the branch in hopes of making it to your car to get a moment of peace to sneak a snack without a customer identifying you through your window tint before you escape the parking lot to ask the most basic question that they have asked every month for the past 5 years OR you walk past customers with a folder in your hand as if you have a business meeting at another location and click your heels in the parking lot once you unlock your car doors and speed off in victory!
You work from home people are ki----g me! You’re half depressed about having to see your peers in the office and swear you’re so inconvenienced because you have to get dressed, drive a few miles and then actually greet people you pass by as you get to a desk once you’ve entered the building.
Sorry, but… I can’t say I’m feeling bad for you all. Welcome back to Wells! We’ve been here! Nice of you to join us again. Mask up and wash your hands often.
My non sarcastic and not so rude response: You just take your lunch! Under your desk so you aren’t bothered or interrupted.
I’m fat. Skipping lunch is a blessing, esp when summer is around the corner!!
What is this concept of ‘lunch’ that you speak of? It sounds fascinating and enticing. The days I work from home I never get a break long enough to eat (and that’s been my life for 15 years of fully remote work). The 1 day every-other-week that I’m forced into the office, I get there at 6 AM and leave by 8 AM - one of the unending joys of working with a team that’s 80% EGS.
@1dqe+1fSLritx
You most certainly do have that ability, regardless of who it is. You are legally allowed that break and have every right to decline whatever meeting is being scheduled if it overlaps that time. If they have an issue with it they can take it up with the labor board.
Maybe not, but I'm not packing everything up so I can eat in a break room 50' away. I'll eat at my desk or not at all. I've been with the company over a decade and have never once ate in a break room.
I heard tech was affected.
If you are at a hotel desk you should not be eating at the desk. Period. That is the poster's problem so answer accordingly. And for those saying decline or block meetings - you don't have that luxury when it is senior managers requiring your presence to attend on their behalf etc.......
I eat by myself every day. It has been that way since day one. I like the solitude and the getting away from it all.
You're right, I don't know why I was thinking that any hardware they allow us to get was worth a **** and would actually work. I actually can't wait for VDI or whatever they call the "buy your own hardware plan". I'll get stuff that actually works. I'm 'over' the idea that I shouldn't have to pay for my own hardware at this point. I just want stuff that works and that isn't so locked down by the eggheads that I can't fix simple things myself. Virtual desktop is just fine, so long as THAT works, which is probably won't.
@qik+1fSLritx, so the OP is trolling? Looks like you took the bait.
"The vitriol from some of our coworkers is disheartening. The OP had a legitimate question and was asking for suggestions from their peers. Why do some of you feel the need to react so hostilely? I highly doubt this is how you would respond in person, on the phone, or in any other forum that wasn’t anonymous. You wouldn’t abandon basic courtesy in any other situation where you were interacting with a fellow employee so why do it here?"
Your ki----g me Smalls.
Legitimate question? Any question is a legitimate question. This question by the OP is so basic it is almost incredulous that it is being asked. What's next, a follow up question on how to manage bathroom breaks? Be sure to include the step by step on how to WYA. You are right, I would not abandon basic courtesy. I would respond in kind with some obvious advice and finish with some sort of sarcastic remark. They deserve it.
The problem is the OP doesn't think to fgure it out and instead comes on here with twit questions THIS is why folks respond like they do to these types of questions on this board.
@jzz+1fSLritx
You can order a wireless one unless your LOB restricts that. Wired = less support calls. The wireless ones generate a high amount of support calls - because they are awful.
I don't take food to the office. Just a water bottle. I won't be there long enough to starve and I don't want to deal with bringing my cr-p with me or securing it while I go to breakrooms or whatever. It's already a complete waste of time disassembling / assembling my tech bits. BTW, who was the @$$hat that decided that our headsets have to have wires? Thanks a lot of that.
@OP+1fSLritx
Work through lunch and leave 30 minutes early. Or eat at your desk and claim the time as paid time since you were working. That is what I would do.
"The vitriol from some of our coworkers is disheartening."
You can say that again! But they're brave anonymous internet trolls.
I have this issue as well where everyone is spread across all time zones and we have large group meetings. I just skip lunch at work since I don’t want to eat at the desk now. I would eat at my assigned desk, but it isn’t fair to have someone find my crumbs in the keyboard the next day.
Post ID: @zec+1fSLritx
Legitimate question? Most 10 year olds could figure it out and I'm not talking about scotch wh----y.
Are most employees this helpless? People have been scheduling meetings during lunch for decades. Amazingly people figured it out
don't be afraid to decline meetings. setup reoccurring meetings for lunch and block your calendar with a reoccurring meeting from when you leave at the end of the day until when you start work. people will still disregard your schedule but your cam always decline.
The vitriol from some of our coworkers is disheartening. The OP had a legitimate question and was asking for suggestions from their peers. Why do some of you feel the need to react so hostilely? I highly doubt this is how you would respond in person, on the phone, or in any other forum that wasn’t anonymous. You wouldn’t abandon basic courtesy in any other situation where you were interacting with a fellow employee so why do it here?
To the OP I agree with the other suggestions. I put a recurring appointment on my calendar and treat it like any other call. I’ll decline overlapping meeting invites and just say I have a conflict and suggest alternative times. It’s up to them to decide how badly they need me on the call then. On the VERY rare occasion where I decide I will need to work through lunch I plan ahead and bring food to eat at my desk.
This is one of those growth opportunities in the area called "time management".
Jesus christ you dont remember how to pack a lunch??? Also block 30 minutes at lunch and decline meeting requests that come through. If you absolutely have to meet then tell someone you'll need to be 5 minutes late to get your lunch. It's not that deep.
"Proactively block 30 minutes to eat lunch, go for a walk, get a screen break, use the restroom. Plan your whole week in advance. Propose new meeting times if you have to. I proactively block at least one hour a day to get tasks done/read and respond to emails. Personally, I know that things can wait and that we are not doctors saving lives; so I’m going to eat my lunch so I’m not hangry."
This is good advice. Thanks for the good faith reply!
Proactively block 30 minutes to eat lunch, go for a walk, get a screen break, use the restroom. Plan your whole week in advance. Propose new meeting times if you have to. I proactively block at least one hour a day to get tasks done/read and respond to emails. Personally, I know that things can wait and that we are not doctors saving lives; so I’m going to eat my lunch so I’m not hangry.
This isn't about lunching together, or ensuring coverage. This is about having scattered teams and partners, with meetings going on all day because no one is in the same time zone. It can be challenging.
We don’t lunch together or even spend time together. Lunches are taken whenever each of us wants to go. Lunches aren’t at a set time or coordinated amongst the team.
Lunch is a personal matter, not a group/team function.
We don’t have to coordinate lunch breaks
Grab something, eat at my desk. No biggie.
There are days when I have back-to-back meetings all day, and I suddenly look at the clock, wondering why I'm starving, and see it's 2 PM.
Brown bag it kid.
I go alone