One Engineer’s Love Affair with ZeroCater(blog.zerocater.com)
blog.zerocater.com
One Engineer’s Love Affair with ZeroCater
http://blog.zerocater.com/one-engineers-love-affair-with-zerocater
3 comments
I like ZeroCater, but "[t]he team that eats together stays together" is BS in my book.
Joel Spolsky made a good case for eating lunch together in a blog post earlier this year: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2011/04/28.html
There are many cultures, too, in which eating together has a lot of significance for a relationship. It's a very basic biological necessity that I think has deep, tribal roots as a bonding experience.
I think it can be especially important for nerds, too, in that we're not gregarious or socially outgoing by nature.
There are many cultures, too, in which eating together has a lot of significance for a relationship. It's a very basic biological necessity that I think has deep, tribal roots as a bonding experience.
I think it can be especially important for nerds, too, in that we're not gregarious or socially outgoing by nature.
I prefer not to eat with my coworkers or even see them outside of work. Work is stressful enough and we're all great friends when we're there...but we all understand that we spend too much time together and would rather not spend our lunch breaks or weekends talking about work because it isn't productive. We hit the same points over and over again. It's a never ending meeting.
I think it can be especially important for nerds, too, in that we're not gregarious or socially outgoing by nature.
Well how does this work, then? "Some people don't like olives, that's why we have an olive-eating contest every Thursday."
Well how does this work, then? "Some people don't like olives, that's why we have an olive-eating contest every Thursday."
Come on. Seriously? Not being gregarious or socially outgoing isn't the same as anti-social or misanthropic. Some of us welcome and appreciate a structured way in which to socialize. Without a group lunch, a hypothetical nerdy new employee might not reach out to people socially, and his equally nerdy co-workers might not reach out to him. With a group lunch, nobody has to.
Without a group lunch, a hypothetical nerdy new employee might not reach out to people socially, and his equally nerdy co-workers might not reach out to him.
A company who relies on group lunches to make a company work normally needs new management, period. Surely there's an HR/hiring problem if people are being brought on board who require informal interaction outside of a work context in order to do good work. You might think I'm being all Sheldon about this, but work-life balance is important to me, and lunchtime is a part of that.
It's a very basic biological necessity that I think has deep, tribal roots as a bonding experience.
Sure, but as you say, this is solely your belief. That doesn't make it fact, and it doesn't mean it applies to anybody else. If you can only work at a company that subscribes to this belief, that's your option, but it's not fair to say that every company should hew to your beliefs.
A company who relies on group lunches to make a company work normally needs new management, period. Surely there's an HR/hiring problem if people are being brought on board who require informal interaction outside of a work context in order to do good work. You might think I'm being all Sheldon about this, but work-life balance is important to me, and lunchtime is a part of that.
It's a very basic biological necessity that I think has deep, tribal roots as a bonding experience.
Sure, but as you say, this is solely your belief. That doesn't make it fact, and it doesn't mean it applies to anybody else. If you can only work at a company that subscribes to this belief, that's your option, but it's not fair to say that every company should hew to your beliefs.
I think you miscontrue the premise. It's not that the company relies on group lunch. It just helps to integrate the group and improve communication. It also helps people get to know each other, which can be hard for introverts to do without structure. Maybe that's not necessarily a boon to productivity, but I appreciate it.
I also don't think anyone (least of all me) is saying this should be universally enforced as standard practice. If you say you must have this time for yourself, and that's a deal-breaker for you, then I respect that. You obviously wouldn't want to work for a company that insists on this. I'm also not saying that I wouldn't work at a company that didn't have this or a similar policy.
I'm just saying I agree that this kind of policy can help, especially among nerds.
I also don't think anyone (least of all me) is saying this should be universally enforced as standard practice. If you say you must have this time for yourself, and that's a deal-breaker for you, then I respect that. You obviously wouldn't want to work for a company that insists on this. I'm also not saying that I wouldn't work at a company that didn't have this or a similar policy.
I'm just saying I agree that this kind of policy can help, especially among nerds.
The lack of structure you mention is my point. There are a million ways to compensate for it, and group lunch is one of them.
Sounds like an awful book.
Assuming good coworkers, team lunch is hugely beneficial for unstructured communication. Everyone gets together, regardless of role, and just talks. People learn about each other, learn about the state of the business and figure out when someone they don't often talk to is actually in a position to help them out.
It's also literally true – the team eating together begins and ends their meals simultaneously, meaning that productivity resumes at the same time for everyone. This makes things really easy when you're working on projects with multiple people.
Team lunches are magic with the right crew.
Assuming good coworkers, team lunch is hugely beneficial for unstructured communication. Everyone gets together, regardless of role, and just talks. People learn about each other, learn about the state of the business and figure out when someone they don't often talk to is actually in a position to help them out.
It's also literally true – the team eating together begins and ends their meals simultaneously, meaning that productivity resumes at the same time for everyone. This makes things really easy when you're working on projects with multiple people.
Team lunches are magic with the right crew.
Perhaps you would like to provide some of your reasoning behind that statement?
Certainly in my somewhat limited experience coworkers who are friends generally work better together and are more likely to ride out the bad times.
The theory goes that eating together is a natural environment for people to establish a rapport that carries through to their working relationship.
Certainly in my somewhat limited experience coworkers who are friends generally work better together and are more likely to ride out the bad times.
The theory goes that eating together is a natural environment for people to establish a rapport that carries through to their working relationship.
It's a headache for those who don't like to eat lunch.
If you don't like eating lunch you can always sit and listen to the awesome lunch time conversations. You know, take a break, because breaks rock!
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I'm not okay with anyone who doesn't enjoy eating lunch.
I'm... so unaccountably bewildered and even offended at just the notion of it. I've never felt this way before.
I suddenly have so much new compassion for religious zealots.
edit: Ha, the anti-lunchers have come outta the woodwork here. Come on dudes, grow a sense of mirth. I'm mostly judging myself for intolerance here.
I'm... so unaccountably bewildered and even offended at just the notion of it. I've never felt this way before.
I suddenly have so much new compassion for religious zealots.
edit: Ha, the anti-lunchers have come outta the woodwork here. Come on dudes, grow a sense of mirth. I'm mostly judging myself for intolerance here.
As just one anecdote: many mediterranean cultures tend to eat one very large meal late in the day (~5pm) and almost nothing before that. I usually have little other than coffee and maybe a piece of fruit before 5pm. Consequently, lunch-at-work is not a thing for me.
Oh, you're very tolerant if you valorize smalltalk about DTWS over not eating lunch together.
see that is what i mean
Well, Rolf. I can't say I understand your... lifestyle... But if this is what makes you happy, I will try to be understanding.
I dunno. Loggly CEO here. We seem to stay pretty well connected at lunch. At some point our size will cause us to splinter, but for now it's awesome. I love these guys!
BTW, free food in our office at Bush and Kearny Tuesday/Thursday! Swing by if you want to talk about zombies or anything else controversial. (Hey, we're ex-Splunk and LookSmart after all!) :)
BTW, free food in our office at Bush and Kearny Tuesday/Thursday! Swing by if you want to talk about zombies or anything else controversial. (Hey, we're ex-Splunk and LookSmart after all!) :)
We seem to stay pretty well connected at lunch.
Selection bias.
Selection bias.
We've been using ZeroCater since the very early days. As Dave said in the article we went away for a while but then came back because of the variety and how easy it made it for us. Just fire and eat.
My company usually has healthy, seasonal lunches cooked by an in-house chef, but when she is not available we use ZeroCater. The discrepancy between healthy home-cooked food and sort-of health catered food is more visible when switching back and forth.
That said, the ZeroCater guys are great and I'm quite impressed with the service. If your startup isn't eating together yet, you should. It's definitely worth the cost!