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Comment by xiphias | Hacker News Reader

Pushing dinner later is just a signal for people that the company doesn't want them to have social lifes. Most cuttings from this list can be OK, but I think dinner time isn't strictly about cost cutting and I am not sure that's a good way to increase productivity either.

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To the contrary, pushing back dinner is a savvy way to serve less meals. Most employees need to get home to family or other obligations. If the food is served at 6PM then many will eat and leave, which negates the benefits of employees staying later. Serving at 7PM means serving only those that can stay later, which is likely a smaller group.

For people who need to get back to family, they won't eat dinner even if it starts being served at 5:30 pm. I agree w/ the person before; moving dinner back is less about saving money and more about saying that you have to earn your dinner by working another hour.

Everyone at office is happy to gran some grub before going home. It relieves pressure on the home cooking effort, especially when the little kids don't eat grown-up food anyway

I haven't ever brought free food outside in a software company, although I could have (except when going out to the nearby park for lunch with a colleague). I felt it immoral. I feel that the price to pay for the food is to talk with colleagues (team building, even if it's not about work). It could be just disallowed (as a form of cost cutting)

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