My reading of this thread is that people who have sensitive immune systems tend to stay away from potluck.
I, OTH, am impervious to all the nasties. Hey! I’m 63, and have probably built up an immunity to most things. Plus, my natural genetic makeup must be great.
I LOVE potlucks. Of course, it helps that we all like each other at work, very few people of questionable hygiene, and about 4/15 dy-no-mite cooks, of whom I’m one.
I used to work at a place that had monthly, if not weekly, potlucks. I was a single mother, on a very limited budget, and I just couldn’t afford to bring food for 20+ people, so I didn’t participate. I could barely afford diapers for my baby.
And I was chastised for not participating in office events. Um, what? You want me to let my kid go hungry so I can help feed a couple dozen co-workers? It’s not cheap to prepare that much food.
I adore potlucks. I just made some lovely fudge for one tomorrow.
Hopefully, you know that you were in the right. Anyone who chastised you is an asshole.
My reading is that those who stay away from potluck (and other situations where germs may be exchanged) tend to have sensitive immune systems. Life is not sanitary and the more you try to insulate yourself from harmful germs, the more vulnerable you are to them.
Me, I loves me some potluck.
I agree with this. I believe there have even been studies about people who avoid getting “dirty” have more problems.
But, it IS understandable.
I loved potlucks when I was working. My department usually put them on for the whole company and everything was in our office, which quickly turned into party central, everyone taking goes with my Nerf gun. This frivolity tended to weed out the less amicable. 
And it made working for an uber-conservative defense contractor a little more bearable for me.
One of the QA engineers was an old foodie (whom I also strongly suspected of being a Doper) that once had the pleasure of dining with Julia Child. He always brought great stuff (and great stories too, the guy traveled freakin’ everywhere). Most people would just bring in prepackaged stuff like veggie trays or whatnot, but all the foodies really had a blast with it, myself included; I hear they still miss my jambalaya!
We did these once a month when I worked for a public library, and I quickly became well-liked for actually spending some money and making a real effort. When most of the ladies brought in macaroni salad or storebought cookies or green-tinged “salads” with Jell-O and mini-marshmallows and shredded coconut, I was the guy who would bring in a vat of baked ziti, or sausage and peppers, or lasagna, all homemade of course. That’s a very good way to win friends and influence people.
In my current job, I travel back and forth between a dozen different job sites (all law firms), so I tend to catch random catered meetings or potluck lunches or parties as I come and go. Sometimes I’ll get treated to a royal banquet or a nice supply of leftovers, which of course makes the whole daily grind more bearable. And some of these firms go crazy with supplying food as Thanksgiving and Christmas draw closer… I can get away with not packing lunches for weeks at a time!
I’m not trying to be snarky here at all, I’m just really wondering - what kind of ‘questionable’ are we talking here? Bad breath? B.O.? Dirty fingernails? Dandruff? Or just rumpled and not terribly well groomed? I haven’t had many jobs given to potlucks (or many jobs at all - I tend to be self-employed), and I don’t particularly enjoy them, but I also haven’t worked with anyone so icky that I would be afraid to eat food they’d made.
Just morbidly curious 
…
I like potlucks. We have one a month at my work. I’m not worried about hygiene, in fact I’ve never thought about it until this very thread. Then again I know and like everyone I work with - crazy, huh? Even so, it’s usually premade stuff that people bring in, or fruit. My supervisor likes to bring watermelon, which is great, because I like to eat watermelon.
Personally, I generally take the easy way and bring in a container of pre-mixed, pre-washed green salad (spring mix), and a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette. The best thing I’ve seen someone bring, though, was a container of hummus with cut up pitas, that was great and so easy! I may have to steal that idea.
Well, I get concerned about the ingredients because eating the wrong thing can land me in the hospital rather quickly. Which brings me to my two pet peeves:
1) The Secret Ingredient: Given that I have a genuine medical issue, I must know what I am eating. But there always seems to be someone who is of the “secret family recipe that must not be divulged” crowd who will NOT tell me what’s in the dish. They repeatedly reassure me it’s safe/natural/whatever and just try it. No. Nor will I rattle off the list of forbidden-to-me foods because I can NOT trust that the idiots involved will know that when I say “no tomato” that really does also mean no ketchup, no marina, no cocktail sauce – nothing that involves tomatoes in any form no matter how adulterated.
2) You MUST eat this: These folks are offended that I don’t try a sample of everything, or a sample of their special food. Funny - those who have seen me have a reaction to food hasten to steer me away from any but the most safest options, but these ninnies insist that “only a taste will be safe” or that I’m over-reacting or being anti-social or offensive or whatever. No, I will NOT jeopardize my health in order to “be polite” or whatever.
In fairness, my current place of employment is rather reasonable about this sort of thing. When ordering pizza, for example, they order me a salad so I can eat in the company of everyone else but for the most part people don’t get bent out of shape over my avoiding the pizza. (The gal with the gluten intolerance also gets a salad). On occassion I have brought my own food when I know that what will be served will most likely be incompatible with my requirements - and some folks REALLY take it personally.
It’s not that I’m a picky eater - I eat a wide and diverse diet and I’m willing to try new things, it’s just that there really are foods that might as well be poison to me.
My situation was not as dire as yours, but a few years ago my then-husband dropped the bomb on me that he did not care to stay married to me - and he did so about a week and a half before Thanksgiving, when we were all supposed to be signing up for what we would bring that Wednesday.
Well, I was a mess. Showing up for work to just stare at the wall. People leading me around helping me do my job to get me back into a daily routine. All except for one - the bossy super-Christian office lady (the Christian part is only relevant because of what I said to her). This is the lady we all hid our drinks from, didn’t cuss around, whatever. It didn’t matter because everyone can use a little discretion now and then, but you understand the type. Anyway, she did not care that I was dealing with a major crisis and was basically a zombie for about a week. She hounded me several times a day because I had not signed up for what I was bringing. Finally I snapped and snatched the clipboard out of her hand and said “Fine! I’ll bring a goddam vegetable tray!” And my father that night drove me to WalMart to pick one up, and to this day they are known around my family and work as “goddam vegetable trays.” We’re thinking of calling the others “fucking fruit trays” but you have to get someone to yell it in our showroom first for it to really catch on.
I refuse to EVER contribute, by way of preparing food or chipping in, to an office function held on company time. Never. If the company wants me to “team-build” and go all kum-bay-ah with my co-workers, they’re gonna have to do it on company time and pay for the food.
Thankfully I have not worked at any company since college that would dream of asking employees to do such a thing. It doesn’t make sense anyway, financially; we can get the food catered, set up, and cleaned up for less than the equivalent man-hour cost of having employees “help out.”
We hired someone recently and the week after, I planned to get a cake to say hello to her and farewell to the person she was replacing. I asked this new employee if she had preferences in flavor, said “we” (which I thought was clear to mean we, the company) were getting a cake, and she got her wallet and offered to chip in. I laughed; I said one, that the cake was FOR her and I’d never ask her to chip in for her own cake; and two, “trust me, the day they start expecting us to pay for office cakes is the day there are no more cakes–any “work food” you ever eat in this office will be paid for by the company.” I have been lucky to work in such places, I guess. I don’t mind the socializing at all; but I’m not paying for it with my own money unless it’s got nothing to do with work and is not held at work.
For what it’s worth, I actually miss participating more in potlucks. I’m also of the school that, unless someone has really disgusting personal habits, the germs will (hopefully) either be cooked out of the food they bring or are simply so prevalent I’ve developed an immunity. I just don’t participate much anymore because I don’t like the food that often and the food that I do like is usually really unhealthy. I try to bring something healthy, but people sometimes get offended if you only eat your own food. But fortunately people I work with are understanding if I say, “I’m trying to lose a few, but thanks. It smells delicious.” A whistful look at the food usually mollifies most people who would otherwise try to cram it down my throat.
Bolding mine.
Where were you guys in the recent “Should I go to work with a cold” thread? I could’ve used a little help in that one. My answer of “Go to work” was not popular.
I don’t enjoy potluck dinners because of the social element. I’ve got enough to do without cooking for thirty and schlepping it in and then making small talk and pretending I care about your new car, or your iThingee. I’m an atrocious curmudgeon. Just atrocious. I have to admit, though, that I’ve had pots of luck at the few potluck dinners I’ve attended, and I’ve eaten well.
We’ve had one pot luck at my place of employment. Everyone quickly realized that it doesn’t work in our group. We’re all twentysomethings and work in Manhattan. None of us drive–we either walk or (in my case), ride the subway. No one wants to carry a large, prepared dish on the subway during rush hour, while standing and getting shoved around by hundreds of angry commuters. So I bought some chips and salsa and soda from Duane Reade. Everyone else had similar ideas–or brought a small container of homemade cookies. One person made finger sandwiches. We all devoured the sandwiches like vultures. Then, it was us and a bunch of junk food. Not the nicest lunch we could think of.
No.
“Luck” is not a postpositive adjective (as for court martial, attorney general, mother-in-law, heir apparent, etc.) describing a type of pot here, it’s part of a single compound word with a normal plural, “potlucks.”
Scarlett, who has a functioning immune system and loves potlucks, but has no workplace
I love 'em. The food is usually above average quality, far better than the school district’s shitty catering, ie., the cafeteria. I’d much rather eat food made by my co-workers than cafeteria food. I’ve never had anyone question what I eat, bother me to eat a particular thing, or make me feel obligated to participate.
There are so many people at each of these events that no one needs to make enough for everyone, because not everyone will eat your dish. A tray of baked ziti costs about $6 to make, and for that contribution, you get enough food of a dizzying variety to stuff you to the gills. It’s a great deal. The dishes are hit or miss, but you can pretty much tell by looking at them which is going to be good and which is kinda not that appetizing. Last one, someone made tiramisu from scratch and it was better than restaurant quality. There is also a Laotian woman at work who makes fantastic dishes.
For people who are worried about stuff like this:
Do you not eat at restaurants? Because I’d trust my co-workers over random strangers in a restaurant kitchen, which might have roaches, rats, etc., not to mention people with dirty hands touching my food. Maybe that’s just me, and my confidence in my co-workers. You’re taking that risk any time you eat food not prepared by you, IMO.
If you looked at my entire post again, Rubystreak, you’d see the correct context for my comment.
For simplicity’s sake - Originally Posted by Mangetout
“What diseases are you honestly going to catch from eating a ham sandwich that someone else briefly touched twenty seconds ago?”
My response had to do with the suggestion that brief touching of food is harmless, when in fact in some cases it is not, should the toucher have something like fecal material (which I edited out of my first post so as not to be gross) on their hands. It doesn’t take much fecal matter to transmit Hepatitis A, as we found out in Michigan not a few years back at Roosevelt’s in Farmington Hills. My post had nothing to do with where I eat or where food is prepared, whether in a restaurant or at work.
I’m glad you trust your co-workers more than ‘random strangers in a restaurant kitchen’, but that’s neither here nor there.
Sure it is-- because any time you eat food prepared by other people, out of your sight, then you are apparently risking Hep A. You can also get it from raw vegetables, or from your kids, who got it from other kids while playing Seems like potlucks are the least of your worries, eh? Who can live their life in that kind of fear? It’s just not a good enough reason not to eat at a potluck, IMO, where you actually know all the people, and in my case, know that they’ve had training in how infectious diseases are transmitted, and how it can be prevented. I think that’s both here AND there.