Lunch meeting in the office.

[GRIFFIN1]

When the office manager where I work has a meeting where lunch is going be be ordered, the receptionist, passes out menus, places the order, and then goes to pick up the food. The problem I have is that he NEVER offers to include her lunch with the order.

Should her lunch be included and paid for by the company even though she isn't in the meeting?

 

[Cal166]

She actually goes and picks up the food? Heck yeah, she deserves to be included.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Yes, but .... why not delivery?

 

[GRIFFIN1]

Yes, but .... why not delivery?

Because she is more reliable. We have had problems with food being delivered an hour after the meeting was over. He also sends her to another store to get bottled drinks.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I think her lunch should be included. She's doing all the legwork. Probably not your place to speak up about it though. She needs to man up and say something if it's a big deal to her.

 

[MtnMan]

Do you still get your 'lunch hour' where you can leave the office and and run errands or do whatever you want, i.e. downtime?

 

[Drako]

Nah, let the peons buy their own lunch.

 

[dirtboy]

Based on my understanding of the IRS's definition of a deductible lunch, no...

 

[thesmokingman]

Isn't she doing her job?

 

[lxskllr]

I'd buy her lunch, but that's because I'm not a dick to the people I work with. It's not unethical or illegal to not get her lunch, but it's kind of dickish.

 

[Ns1]

We have lunch at work meetings all the time - the admins never get in on that. The admins aren't the ones giving up their lunch hour.

She's doing all the legwork.

By legwork you mean everyday job description?

 

[thesmokingman]

I'd buy her lunch, but that's because I'm not a dick to the people I work with. It's not unethical or illegal to not get her lunch, but it's kind of dickish.

On the other hand it sets up expectations of entitlement. It's nice to do... but could lead to raised expectations. Who else is going to feel left out now?

 

[slayer202]

only on fridays, duh

 

[BurnItDwn]

I assume the receptionist is on the clock and able to bill the company for miles for when she picks the food up. If so, I don't see a problem with not including her in the lunch, but on the other hand, It would be a nice/kind thing to buy her lunch every now and again.

 

[Pantoot]

When I order pizza I always buy an extra one for the delivery guy to eat.

It would be a nice gesture to say "pick something up for yourself" every once in awhile, but then you risk it becoming an entitlement.

 

[GRIFFIN1]

I can see the entitlement thing being a problem. If you do it once, then it would sort of be expected after that. In this situation, there is only one admin, and she is only required to pick up lunch maybe once every 3 months.

 

[Midwayman]

She still gets her lunch hour, so no. Sure it would be nice to do and all, but the lunch is the carrot for working through lunch.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you were to go "by the book" I'd say no, if you want to be a decent human being, then yes.

 

[holden j caufield]

It's actually a team thing, and good for morale to offer. No she doesn't need to eat with you but you have to offer to pick up her portion.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

That's pretty shitty that she's getting singled out. We do lunch ever Thursday and everyone gets to be a part of it.

 

[holden j caufield]

Since the dept is small enough we also make sure the new guy never eats alone on his first day.

 

[rcpratt]

Definitely not required, but also a dick move to not offer at least once in a while. I would think my office would do it the majority of the time.

 

[Ns1]

That's pretty shitty that she's getting singled out. We do lunch ever Thursday and everyone gets to be a part of it.

The admin isn't the one giving up their lunch hour. They are literally doing their job description.

 

[CountZero]

A lunch meeting? No, they should not be getting part of the lunch. Picking up lunches is apparently part of their job as a receptionist. I will say that if it is a smaller company and/or the picking up of lunch is a pain that day (like it is raining or snowing or something similar) then maybe offering would be ok.

A celebration lunch? It is a nice thing to do but still not necessary.

 

[crashtech]

Hierarchical org. no, egalitarian org., yes.