Food at Work
Photograph from iStockphoto.com
On a recent episode of The Office, the secretary, Pam, is charged by management to keep an eye on her boss, Michael (Steve Carell), recording his every move. This grows difficult because the day she’s supposed to do this is Pretzel Day—a man comes once a year to the office with a pretzel cart, and everyone in the building lines up for fresh, hot pretzels. Michael spends his entire day waiting in line.
The paradox here—that Michael spends his entire day at work doing something that he could do much more quickly if he weren’t at work—brings to light the way food operates for most white collar workers in America. It’s a necessary respite, an almost all-consuming need for pleasure that makes the hours of repetitive typing, e-mailing, and phone-answering tolerable. Food is the carrot that dangles in front of the donkey: It’s what gets us through the first few hours of the day (where will we go to lunch?) and what gets us through the second half of the day, too (what will we eat for dinner?).
Thinking about food at work accounts for the popularity of food blogs (especially blogs like San Francisco's Burrito Eater or New York City's Midtown Lunch that reveal places to eat near the office), the expansion of easy home-cooking shows (a 30-minute meal after an eight-hour day has its appeal), and the escalation of normal work fare (coffee and muffins) to more refined options (lattes and scones). My friend Lisa’s office gets bakery deliveries that include pretzel croissants and tubs of lychee fruit. Other friends, such as D., have to plan office birthday parties on a regular basis because her co-workers demand a moment for cake and soda at least once a week. These small doses of food help keep the people happy, and staying happy at work is something many struggle to do.
Case in point, Lisa once decided to bake cookies for her friend’s birthday at work. She recounts the story on IM:
Lisa: i brought in cookies for my friend's birthday
Lisa: and i put them on the file cabinet near my desk that is in a frequently passed area so that everyone could enjoy them
Lisa: my boss came by in the morning and took one
Lisa: and didn't actually say anything to me
Lisa: then five minutes later he called the girl who sits next to me
Lisa: and told her to bring all the cookies into his office
Lisa: and she told me that he asked for them all
Lisa: and i was like "umm... those aren't his cookies and he didn't actually even say thank you for the one he already ate... that is not cool"
Lisa: especially since the guy whose birthday it was hadn't come in to work yet
Lisa: so i went to his office to reclaim them
Lisa: except his door was closed and he was meeting with two other people (both from our company) and sharing my cookies with them
Lisa: and then his door finally opened
Lisa: and i went to get them
Lisa: but he wasn't in his office
Lisa: so i just went in and took them back
Lisa: and i passed him in the hallway on the way back to my desk
Lisa: and said "I'm taking my cookies back"
Lisa: and he just sort of grunted at me and kept walking.
Her boss was subsequently fired (for unrelated reasons)—still, a small victory for food in the workplace.
Actually, the bureaucracy that Lisa describes speaks to the larger issue when it comes to food at work: (big word alert!) institutionalization. Work, like school, camp, and prison, is an institution. Institutions, as I learned in a law school psychology class (I got a C in the class so don’t take what I’m saying too seriously) operate like mothers: feeding, nurturing, and structuring the day for the “children.” People who enjoy institutions tend to have oral personalities—they like to be nurtured—and it makes sense, then, that people at work crave food.
Doesn’t it feel special at the office when someone brings in gourmet doughnuts? Moreso than if you went to the gourmet doughnut shop by yourself and had one? That’s because it’s happening within the walls of an institution. It’s like your mother letting you stay up past your bedtime or your teacher giving you a free homework pass. The context is what gives you that rush: It’s the rush of momentary liberation, a freedom that seems otherwise unattainable.
I never understood the power of food at work until I, myself, was at work at a law firm in Los Angeles. The coffee at this office was terrible. They had this machine where you inserted little packets of your choosing into a slot and then hot water came down and brewed you an individual cup. I hated it (though many people liked it). And though they did bring in doughnuts every day, after a while, the thrill of doughnuts grew old.
Since this was a period in my life when I was discovering cooking, I decided one night to make a mango cake from one of Sara Moulton’s cookbooks. The kitchen where I lived (a tiny apartment complex for actors in Burbank) was ill-equipped, and I barely had enough equipment to cut the mangos and mix the batter. But I finished the cake and it tasted good—really good—and I thought I’d take a few pieces to work.
I wrapped these pieces in aluminum foil, put them in a plastic bag, and took them into my cubicle. I didn’t know many other people yet—I had just a few friends and these were the ones I gave the cake to.
I may as well have sent “I hate you notes” to everyone else. Word quickly spread about my cake, and interns began popping up at my desk. “I hear you made cake,” they said.
“Oh,” I said. “I’m sorry there isn’t any left.”
The looks they gave me were death glares. It was like bringing a few bottles of water into the desert and tossing them off casually to the parched people closest to you.
“Next time make enough for everyone,” one of the senior associates snapped later in the day.
Yikes. I learned my lesson. I gave up law and decided to become a writer. Now I’m my own boss, and I reward myself with food the same way I rewarded myself with food in an office, only I won’t spend the whole day waiting in line for a pretzel because it’s my time I’d be wasting. I suppose that’s ultimately how food relates to work: When you’re working for others, it’s time you get to take back for yourself. To plant your ass in a chair for eight or more hours a day entitles you to coffee, cookies, and cake. If your boss takes them away, you storm the Bastille and demand them back. “Let us eat cake,” should be the rallying cry.
The evidence suggests that a little food goes a long way at work.
About the author: Adam Roberts is The Amateur Gourmet. His book, The Amateur Gourmet, will be published by Bantam/Dell in summer 2007.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
17 Comments:
What a perfect article for Paczki Day, or... well... Fat Tuesday. Nice going!
jsholar at 11:28AM on 02/20/07
this article hits very close to home... i bring things into work usually about once a week, because i'll get some craving over the weekend for, say, cake or brownies. i'll eat one then send some in with my husband to his job, and take in the rest with me. whatever food i put in the breakroom is gone in less than an hour. there are about 100 people on my floor, so i have no idea who's camping out by the breakroom door waiting for free food to come in. wolves, all of them. it doesnt even matter if the food isnt any good (although everything i bring in is good [pats self on back]). one guy had some foul Atkins weight loss bars he wanted to get rid of. they, along with the turtle brownies i brought in last week, were gone in no time.
french tart at 11:55AM on 02/20/07
Great article--we have a guy in our office who will NOT EAT THE LAST BITE. He cuts and carves until just a smidgen of the baked item is left--all so he doesn't have to wash the plate. And oh yea...he is also the guy who NEVER contributes anything, ever!
swimmom at 12:59PM on 02/20/07
What's up with that cake in the picture and how do I get the recipe??
(to share at work, of course)
ptrap at 1:33PM on 02/20/07
Someone in our office once made egg pizza for just our department. It resulted in a huge ordeal with other departments bringing in food, ordering pizza, etc and making sure we knew about it...and not sharing.
EatWisconsin at 2:54PM on 02/20/07
I love baking and bringing it treats in to work, but my office is just big enough (25 people?) that not everyone will get a bite. I used to feel guilty and sent the treats to work with my boyfriend instead, but now I just send out an email right before I put it in the breakroom. First come first serve!
yumsugar at 3:25PM on 02/20/07
Case in point - a colleague just walked by chewing and two people separately snapped "What are you eating?!" at him. I think this is much worse in Manhattan. I worked at an office in California where one person was responsible for bringing in lunch for everyone about once a month (it was a small company). It worked out to having to make lunch about twice a month, but eating well nearly everyday. I also worked at an office in D.C. where my co-workers and I had a potluck at least once a month. But here in NY, I get snide comments when I bring in lunch I’ve made at home. Comments that betray some sort of jealousy that they’re on their way to buy something from the deli downstairs when I’m eating something that took me an extra 10 minutes to make that morning. And when I bring in baked goods, the reaction (even before “thank you”) is “Did you really make these?” “No, seriously, did you make this?” as if I would go out and purchase baked goods and pass them off as my own! Ok, this obviously hit close to home. Great assessment, Adam. Off my soapbox in 3…2…1.
LizNYC at 3:53PM on 02/20/07
Ugh. I used to work in an office where the cake parties came far too frequently. It was either someone's birthday or one of the many stages of the marriage parade—first the engagement party, then the wedding shower, then, eventually, the baby shower. And let's not forget the sayonara parties for exiting coworkers. During certain months, there were two parties a week. It all gets a bit much. Toward the end of my run there, I would often time my lunch or errands so that I'd be out of the office during the scheduled party time. The American workplace probably loses billions of dollars a year thanks to these goofy events.
Adam Kuban at 4:15PM on 02/20/07
Wow. All I can say is that some of you work in some really messed up offices.
I work for a big corporation in Midtown, and I often bring in my own lunch or cookies for people in my department, and I've never had negative experiences like you're describing. People are always appreciative of my cookies or cake, and never take it for granted. I've never been mocked for bringing in my own lunch. On the contrary, coworkers have looked longingly at my food and said, "I wish I could cook like that."
infraredherring at 4:40PM on 02/20/07
The last time I brought in a cake a coworker said "You just love feeding us, don't you." So many people are on diets in my office that they don't appreciate free sweets-- although they do eat them.
Eliza at 7:04PM on 02/20/07
I recently made a gluten-free raspberry shortcake for my colleages, keeping in mind that one of them has celiac disease. Topped it with a chantilly-style low-fat ricotta. The other guys mocked the 'health food' at first. In the end, they wrestled each other for the last slices.
There's one particular girl who bullies via food e.g. perpetually singling one Indonesian girl out for eating plain lettuce with rice and soy sauce, and the Tibetian guy for putting butter in this tea. Otherwise, we're a very diverse, foodie-populated office.
turkiyaki at 9:21PM on 02/20/07
I grew up in Burbank. I never got any of your cake either. *glare*
I used to bring in goodies to my office (previous life and career) and watched with delight as co-workers came swarming out of the cracks like roaches to devour the goods before skittering away again before the lights came back on. I loved doing it. Now, my office hosts only myself and one other person most of the time and I'm resigned to the yogurt, apples and occasional chicken breasts I bring from home. It's the company that makes the treats...special. A doughnut eaten by myself is just a sugary guilt-bomb. I miss working with roaches.
Acme Instant Food at 1:03AM on 02/21/07
Strangely enough, working in a kitchen isn't much different. While people may be up to their eyeballs in food, it's food that's meant for somebody else. I had a really dense brownie-like cake that I was responsible for at one time. It was to be cut vertically and then diagonally to create diamond shaped pieces for plating. Well, when you cut a big rectangle into little diamonds you end up with quite a few oddly shaped pieces. The staff really looked forward to those little bits of cake. They also like steamed artichoke leaves, broken poached salmon (if it doesn't hold togther it's not served to paying customers) and any little bits of leftover anything you may have. Maybe it is working with the food all the time, or the smells, or... heaven knows, but cooks are downright cut-throat when it comes to kitchen scraps.
Calichef at 7:24AM on 02/21/07
We used to have cake once a month to celebrate birthdays in our group. An employee from another group got transfered to our group. He offered to go out of his way to get the expensive fancy torte cakes. Slowly he started inviting people from other groups to join in our cake days. It started to get too expensive to get bigger and bigger cakes. Some people started opting out. The the new cake guy felt snubbed and started getting cakes and only inviting a chosen few to join in. It turned into cake-gate at work and people took sides and now half the group doesn't get along with the other half. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too!
ThatGirl153 at 3:40PM on 02/21/07
there are 2 of us in my office who bake for "birthday Tuesday" once a month. everyone else is happy to eat the food but not contribute anything to it...so in the summer we have ice cream socials where everyone brings something in. inevtiably, some people did not bring in anything but expected to eat what everyone else brought in. this caused a lot of fighting.
whenever i bake something for the office, it is a problem at home. the hubby feels cheated that he doens't get any....so now i am going to buy something, that way the house won't smell like yummies....
meowises at 12:50PM on 02/22/07
At my former office, (I'm now a freelancing from home and nosh my way through the day...), a co-worker would bring me chocolate covered raisins from Sahadi's in Brooklyn. I called them "my medicine." Any office illness-- boredom, a deadline, a grouchy boss-- would require a fix.
Foodster at 6:16PM on 02/23/07
meowises, it's simple...double the recipe. =)
akk328 at 4:38PM on 07/24/08