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Joel Spolsky: Lunch

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51–60 of 210 posts

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#51
post #18

I have always hated this and probably always will. I have rarely eaten lunch with my work mates. Just a few reasons why: 1. I don't want to talk about work at lunch. 2. I want to get out of the office and get some fresh air. 3. I often want to get away from the very people that Joel suggests spending time with on my break. 4. I'm a "food outlier". I hate pizza, deli, and fast food. I won't eat it away from work. Why…

At work I'm a "food outlier", because I'd actually like to have pizza :(.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#52
I hate it when people assume that everyone else thinks the same way they do.

Just because you get lonely eating alone doesn't mean everybody does.

"Being in any clique, even if it’s just the nerds, is vastly preferable than eating alone."

This is just bullshit. I don't want to be part of a clique. Or a group. Or anything of the sort. My lunch time is a time to get AWAY from people and recharge. Take that away from me and I get stressed out and my productivity suffers massively.

"For loners and geeks, finding people to eat with in the cafeteria at school can be a huge source of stress."

For a lot of us, feeling pressured into "socializing" because some bigwig decided that it's good for us is a huge source of stress. Just leave us be! Please! It's my time, so let me do my thing. Alone.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#53
Joel's free to want to eat lunch however he wants, but who is he to decide that people who are happy to eat alone are "loners", "don't like people" or are pretending not to be sad?

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#54
post #25
post #18

I have always hated this and probably always will. I have rarely eaten lunch with my work mates. Just a few reasons why: 1. I don't want to talk about work at lunch. 2. I want to get out of the office and get some fresh air. 3. I often want to get away from the very people that Joel suggests spending time with on my break. 4. I'm a "food outlier". I hate pizza, deli, and fast food. I won't eat it away from work. Why…

This works a lot better if you're actually friends with most of your coworkers. Then it's pretty awesome.

[deleted]

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#55
post #18

I have always hated this and probably always will. I have rarely eaten lunch with my work mates. Just a few reasons why: 1. I don't want to talk about work at lunch. 2. I want to get out of the office and get some fresh air. 3. I often want to get away from the very people that Joel suggests spending time with on my break. 4. I'm a "food outlier". I hate pizza, deli, and fast food. I won't eat it away from work. Why…

I'm incredibly surprised at how anti-social most of the comments are here. Then again, I just watched the Tina Fey interview at Google, and realizing that maybe I ought not to be surprised. I had this mental image of Google as being a hip, cool, social company to work for but the audience seemed so contrary to this, and even Eric Schmidt would go on and on about how "literal" Googlers take everything, how stereotypically engineer-minded they are, basically implying they were incapable of being creative or having vision or social skills. Maybe that's just Eric being disconnected from his employees, but I have a hunch there is some truth to it.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#56
post #16

Joel is obviously not aware of the differences between introverts and extroverts, which seems weird for someone who works in a field with a lot of introverts. I'm not down on his idea of eating lunch together - it's probably fun and productive. But if someone spots me eating lunch by myself while reading (a book, a magazine, on my phone, on my computer), it's not because I "don't like people," or, sadder, that I pret…

Yes, Joel is COMPLETELY unaware of the differences between introverts and extroverts. Except for the fact that he is an introvert and runs two companies filled with a substantial percentage of introverts. The reason that lunch here works so well is because the people we hire are fun and enjoyable people (even the introverts) so you don't have to pretend to like the other people at the lunch table, you actually do.

That's great, but I think Joel overstates the "problem" of someone eating alone. I like eating with the people I work with, but I also like reading, and sometimes lunch is the only time I have for some pleasure reading. So, sometimes I need a little down time, and I prefer to read and eat by myself rather than eating with my friends. I don't think this makes me someone who hates people or is unpopular.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#57
post #18

I have always hated this and probably always will. I have rarely eaten lunch with my work mates. Just a few reasons why: 1. I don't want to talk about work at lunch. 2. I want to get out of the office and get some fresh air. 3. I often want to get away from the very people that Joel suggests spending time with on my break. 4. I'm a "food outlier". I hate pizza, deli, and fast food. I won't eat it away from work. Why…

I'd love to work at somewhere like fogbugz. Is there anywhere like it that accepts crap programmers?

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#58
post #18

I have always hated this and probably always will. I have rarely eaten lunch with my work mates. Just a few reasons why: 1. I don't want to talk about work at lunch. 2. I want to get out of the office and get some fresh air. 3. I often want to get away from the very people that Joel suggests spending time with on my break. 4. I'm a "food outlier". I hate pizza, deli, and fast food. I won't eat it away from work. Why…

So in #8, you say you want to be able to bitch about your boss behind his back. But in #9 you call everyone else "phoneys" because they bitch about people only when they're not there.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#59
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Synopsis: You hate your job, not your lunch. Quit your job and get a job that you love, and you'll inevitably end up loving the lunch you currently hate.

Right, because everyone who loves their job also loves sitting down to have lunch with their coworkers who they see for not less than seven hours a day five days a week. Personally I think this is an utterly ridiculous idea. Perhaps you love it. Perhaps many others do too. But perhaps also there are those of us who want to spend their lunchtimes not socialising but meditating; who want to be alone rather than with ot…

I'm not saying that you should eat lunch with your coworkers. I actually rarely do.

It's just the case described by the original comment is one of someone who doesn't hate lunch, it's a case of someone who hates their job. There's a difference.

Re: Joel Spolsky: Lunch

#60
I am 49 years old and I work as freelance consultant on e-commerce projets. Honestly, it is impossible for me to work (which means mostly sitting) for 3-4 hours in the morning and 4-5 hours in the afternoon and also sit during lunch. If I do that I will either fall asleep or be unproductive for most of the afternoon. At lunch I spend at least one hour walking, running or biking. At the least I must get outside, whatever the weather.
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