I work with a bunch of chemists, and honestly, cooking a chemical ain’t all that different from cooking food. It’s all about preparation, recipe, and heat transfer. So many of my colleagues are pretty good cooks.
…I love to cook myself, but I’m still young. So the quality of my dishes ranges wildly from “Fantastic!” to “Burn it. With fire. Otherwise that dish will never be ‘clean’.”
But really, we have potlucks maybe twice a year. Usually initiated by HR, but people go along, there’re no terrible moochers, and everyone has a nice time. Since I’m not yet confident enough to cook for an audience I always volunteer to bring more than the “sign-up” amount of soda, napkins, plates, utensils, etc.
I dunno, it’s usually a pleasant time. I often end up chatting with people I don’t interact with much. The food is usually pretty darn good. And it’s a nice break from the usual routine. The potlucks usually make our mandated “1-hr lunch” stretch into a lazy two hours, but the managers never complain.
Potlucks can work, as long as people just be cool.
This is true of approximately 99% percent of work-related things. Unfortunately, bad managers don’t understand this, and think that if you force people to do things together that they’ll come to like each other and have a good time, instead of people having a good time doing things together because they already like each other and want to be there.
Of course the cook has to touch the food while cooking. But once the food is off the stove, out of the oven, or out of the mixing bowl, it should not come into contact with human hands, not even the person who originally cooked it, until the point that it is actually being put into the mouth of the final consumer with his or her own fingers.
Yes, that’s a big part of it. People cramming their hands into bowls of chips, when you’ve seen them exit the bathroom without washing, or when you’ve seen them licking their hands. People sticking their fingers into a crock pot to fish Swedish meatballs out of the sauce. People showing up with Ziploc bags of cut fruit that people then fucking reach into with their hands. People reaching onto my plate with their fingers to grab something. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.
Make no mistake, the biggest source of infection is other people’s hands and faces. I’d rather kiss their ass cheeks.
This touches on why I find work potlucks unappealing: it is not a treat to be offered crappy food, especially where there is social pressure to eat the crappy food.
Even if it is well-made, I just don’t like a lot of the crap that my coworkers eat. Just because some people are willing to shovel anything into their piehole, does not mean that everyone wants to do so. But if you’re not vocally appreciative of this “treat”, you’re singled out.
I work with a bunch of engineers, most of whom are overweight and in really poor shape. Finagling a lunch meeting is, to them, a major score. For me, it’s replacing food I’d like to eat (and is good for me) with frozen-and-reheated-again fried chicken, or Imo’s godawful pizza, or pasta casserole with sides of bread and mac & cheese… or a “fun” office potluck. And the potluck choices are always the same nasty 7-layer thingy or cocktail weenies swimming in some ghastly sauce or wilted veggie trays that’ve been sitting around all day.
Ick. If they want to reward us, just give us time off to do stuff we’d actually enjoy.
Anyway, in a similar vein, a few years back we’d been locked in the plant in case the union went out on strike, and we’d have to run the plant. The strike was averted at the last minute. As a reward for having lived in our offices for two days (some, longer) we were given… an appreciation lunch, from the Pasta Co. Baked mostaccioli. Whee.
Acsenray: um, you don’t use forks and spoons where you work? Big ol’ serving spoons or tongs? It is quite possible for people to share food and not touch each other’s portions.
I hate to cook, so I ususally bring huge bags of Jack-in-the-Box tacos. I have received comments this is tacky. However, there have never been leftover tacos.
Who brings a serving spoon or tongs for a bowl of potato chips or pretzels?
Of course people bring serving spoons. That doesn’t mean everyone is going to use them. Some people are just disgusting, like the guy with the Swedish meatballs.
Some cooks don’t seem to realize that their fingers count as unwelcome fingers, so I’ve seen people setting up the potluck table and arranging, say spring rolls or chicken wings on a platter with their hands (washed recently? who knows?), sometimes with bonus finger sucking included. Yeah, they then put down tongs for people to serve themselves, but they’ve already touched all the wings!.
For some reason, certain foods seem to exude an aura of “it’s okay to touch me with your hands,” like pieces of fruit.
Actually, pre-cut fruit is itself disgusting. Bring whole fruit, dammit! And you people, when there’s whole fruit on the platter, take the whole damn thing, don’t try to cut it up! Nobody wants your discarded pieces! Which leads me to …
Damn you people who are cutting or tearing the food up into smaller pieces. Take the entire piece as served! If you don’t want the whole thing, just pitch it. Don’t put your disgusting leavings on the buffet!
There was the one guy who brought in fried chicken and fried okra from Church’s, so that he would have something he wanted to eat.
Usually here the potlucks are for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the company pays for turkey and ham, and then employees provide everything else.
That may be the company’s legal position, but I can tell you how it really works. The employees might account for their regular unpaid lunch break time as nominal time off, but the extra 30 mins to hour they will bill to their regular charge code or one of their projects, the same way any training or section meeting or management event are billed to your regular charge code. That’s the company policy. “Training is part of your job. Section meetings are part of your job.” Etc. So even though we are supposed to charge work to the correct project, apparently there’s flexibility in how you define what counts as part of the project work.
I sense an episode of Castle in the making… Murder at the Murder Mystery Hotel weekend.
There’s a taco cart downstairs every day for lunch now. (Except on Fridays, when it’s a few blocks north with the rest of the food carts surrounding Catheral Square Park, which is why Friday is heaven.) Want me to bring you something?
I have to admit - my current assignment is just me and the boss. Our potlucks consist of one of us going out with the corporate credit card and charging stuff.
I am sure most of them have cleaner kitchens than I do, quite honestly, but there’s always a chance that’s not true. I’m not saying it’s normal; I’m just saying that’s how I feel.
I should also mention that I’m the kind of person who is horrified by being offered crackers from a box that’s been opened on a different day. I am REALLY not meant for Potlucks.
In regard to the poster who complained about going to their boss’ party: You can’t take a few hours out of your weekend to schmooze with a boss? A boss who can keep you from needing a new job in the worst job market in 80 years? :dubious: To the poster whose boss wanted them to use vacation time to golf with them:how did your boss walk with such big brass ones?
etv78: I think the point is that the entire model of getting ahead by kissing ass instead of being competent at the job you’re being paid to do is bullshit.
Exactly. The point is it’s a shitty system and it shoudln’t work that way. Which is why we come here and say it’s a stupid idea, and then probably do it anyway.
