And then around 11, lunch setup begins with fried chicken, various dips and vegetable plates, more brownies, pasta salads, multiple soft drinks and the list goes on.
At both my current and previous employer the situation was the same - so it's not a company culture thing.
Depsite the plethora of food, I still bring my standard sandwich, yogurt, apple and diet coke. I just skipped the chocolate bar. Call me a creature of habit, but I prefer a reasonably consistent healthy meal.
Here's the interesting part, for me anyway. I work with a bunch of very analytical people. And every time the group is always amazed at the volume of food. "Oh, there's so much here! How are we going to eat it all?" The surprise is what really gets to me. If you asked any of these people out of context how much food you'd need to feed 25 people (keep in mind we don't burn many calories sitting all day), I would think they'd all agree not everyone would need to bring something. But this never happens. There's some unwritten social dynamic at work here. For some reason, it's never an option to have say 5 of the 25 people bring something on one day for five consecutive Fridays. Guess what, you could have 4 additional food days without the waste. But for some reason, it's socially unacceptable to indulge if you haven't contributed that particular day.
Today I brought in a dozen donuts. By 4pm, there were 4 left and I had eaten 3. I just don't get it.
