Hacker News Reader

Comment by enraged_camel | Hacker News Reader

>>After one particular grueling stint of 14+ hour days, management decided to give them a thank-you. In the form of vouchers. For frozen dinners.

Eh, it could be worse.

At a previous company I worked for, one of the executives passed away. There was a funeral on a Friday, followed by reception. Guess what the lunch was on Monday at the office? The leftovers from the reception.

A similar thing happened where the CEO had a party at his house for the engineering department. No one else was invited. The following day, company lunch was leftovers from that party.

Looking back, I wish they had simply given us frozen dinner vouchers rather than shitty food.

View on HN

They've never served lunch here. Maybe we should have more funerals...

>> Well we had it tough. We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and LICK the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at the mill for fourpence every six years, and when we got home, our Dad would slice us in two with a bread knife. -- Obligatory Four Yorkshiremen[1] Python reference

Not to poke fun at folks suffering, we've all been there and it's not healthy.

The question is, what system could we put in place that would reward a positive work culture and penalize *hattery? I know Glassdoor tries, but is there a way to measure this that won't be gamed out of shape?

1. http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-four-yorkshi...

Wow, I'm all for not wasting food, but that's really tacky.

What's tacky about offering free food that no one is obligated to eat? GP might have written one of the most entitled things I've seen!

If part of your compensation comes in the form of food, then it isn't free.

Of course, if it's part of your compensation, it should probably be taxed as such... maybe I should keep my mouth shut.

Food offered for the employer's convenience is non-taxable compensation.

I said this in another response too, but normally we got lunch catered and it was part of the compensation. In the two scenarios I mentioned though, we got served leftovers just so the company could save a few hundred bucks.

Or, you got served leftovers because throwing food away is exremely wasteful. I eat leftovers all the time. What's the big deal?

I didn't say they should have thrown it away. There are many organizations that accept food donations from private events as long as it is still fresh and in good condition.

In the funeral scenario, the problem was that the funeral was on a Friday and the food was stale and gross by the time it was served for lunch on Monday.

In the other scenario, a lot of people were offended that they were being served left-overs from a private party they weren't invited to, despite being a part of the company. The CEO not only gave preferential treatment to engineering but then went one step further and served the leftover food to the rest of the company. To me, that clearly communicates what he thinks of non-engineers.

I'm outraged that they didn't throw this food away or at least charge you for the leftovers.

I should have provided context. We normally got lunch catered, but on those particular days though they served leftovers just to save a few hundred bucks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com