Lunch Wars: Tech & Finance vs. Everybody Else
Multiple times a week I find myself in a breakfast/lunch meeting, either at some corporate event or walking through one of my customers offices onward to my next endeavor. Once I started paying attention it became so clear how some organizations are winning the lunch battle while others are suffocating themselves without even knowing it.
I see some companies provide a catered lunch every day, others have full cafeterias on campus with free or highly discounted foods for all employees. The most typical workday food scenario’s we find ourselves in are lunch meetings, bagel Wednesdays and the beloved Pizza Fridays. A wise man once told me “There’s no such thing as a Free Lunch” and after some time in the corporate world I’ve never heard truer words. There’s always a catch and truth be told, I’m cool with that as long as businesses are doing it the right way.
Lets start with the typical picture, as I attend an event or walk through an office during those hungry hours I see a big spread of pastries, bagels and fruit juices for breakfast. As we move to lunch the classic order is deli sandwiches(or wraps), chips, side salad, cookies and soda standing at attention. As you may have experienced, many of these options are usually pleasing to your taste buds but they can really take an effect on your ability to perform throughout the day. Most don’t realize that their taking their body on a wild blood sugar roller-coaster of peeks and valleys, all leading up to that dreaded 2pm crash-if you manage to stay awake.
Believe it or not, nodding off physically mentally at 2pm is not only funny (only if it’s a coworker) but bad for business. Why would corporations put themselves in a position to have their workforce possibly preforming at a below average level for a portion of the day.
The big thing that many businesses are missing is that providing a fully balance delicious meal is just as easy as ordering those deli sandwiches. They need to put their employees in a position to win (whether they know it or not) because it will be mutually beneficial. Look at Google(and tech in general), they provide free food to their employees with a large emphasis on plant based meals and sustainability – perfect example of putting their employees in a great position to win as well as deliver for the company. Many of the financials that I work with bring in a dramatic spread every day for their workforce, I break their reasoning down into two parts : 1) Keeping employees in the office and happy to promote more better work 2) Providing the proper fuel for their employees to preform at a top physical and mental level.
The information around nutrition and performance is sitting here in plain sight ready to be consumed. I’m a big believer that if people are given the option to make appealing(salads are not appealing….too most) health choices the majority of the time they will. Corporations so often get accused for being selfish, criticized that employee interests are an afterthought to the bottom line. Well, here’s an opportunity to instill change….and its a Win-Win.
