I'm really beginning to like the communal lunch system here at work.

[randomness]

I don't know if it's a general feature of German offices, or if it's just something this startup has decided to do, but here's how it works:

In the late morning, the co-worker or co-workers who are cooking lunch today go around and get a headcount, so they know how much food to buy.
That person or team then goes and buys an appropriate amount of groceries for lunch that day.
They come back and begin cooking in the company lunchroom, which has full kitchen facilities.
When lunch is ready, they go around and tell everyone who's said they're in that it's time to eat.
Everyone eats together at a long table. There's generally not much shop talk; people are happy to talk about something other than work. (Although my German isn't up to conversation I can tell that much.)
There's usually enough for people to go back for seconds; usually not enough for a full second portion, but enough so you're pleasantly full.
People are pretty business-like about not hanging about for very long after everyone's finished eating. When that happens, everyone gets up at once.
We all clear our own dishes and load them into the dishwasher. The people who cooked run the dishwasher and wipe down the tables.

There's a sign-up sheet where people mark down how many meals we've had; the set rate is €2 per lunch. Food tends to be fairly straightforward and filling; these are on average graduate school-aged guys, so the food is pretty much what you'd expect. Last time it was sausages served with a sauerkraut/noodle mix, which included some bacon to give the sauerkraut some saltiness. One of the principals made that. Today it was a spinach/feta/tuna mix over rotini. A couple of the guys in development made it, and it was really good.

Because I'm not on the sign-up sheet, someone has to come find me in the afternoon to collect my money, but I think for people who are here permanently they run a tab and you settle up at the end of the month or something.

The full staff here isn't more than 15 people, and not all of those choose to eat with us. Today, we had 7; last Thursday we had 12. There's no division between management and staff; we all sit at the same table and we all rotate through cooking duties. I haven't rotated in yet, and I'm told not to worry; I'll get paired with someone who knows what's generally popular and within the budget. Management doesn't always eat in because they're often out on client meetings and such, but when they do they're just like any other employee with regard to cooking and cleaning, and they sit at whatever seats are available at the table.

I think this communal lunch is a great idea for any of a number of reasons, and its existence and operation says a lot about company culture. It's also great to be able to look forward to a hot meal at midday. I think I'll ask my host how it all got started and whether this is a common thing in small companies here.

Comments

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

Sounds really cool.

[pantsie.livejournal.com]

What an excellent idea -- that does say a lot about the company. I wish we could do that.

Sadly, we don't have an eating space that would accomodate the majority of the people in the office, nor do we have kitchens. We used to do a weekly hot lunch (pizza, take-out, etc.) when we were smaller, but that's getting tougher to do on a regular basis.

[evilbunnymayhem.livejournal.com]

Huh, yeah that's really an excellent concept. You'd think working around food all day we'd have a system like that- not so much, breaks are individual and rotated. (not for me- but most everyone else).
At times there's warm food at the demonstration area (which can be good or gross). There are means to heat and even bake things, but nothing on the scale you have going there. Sounds lovely.

[hawver.livejournal.com]

Ug, while that is pretty cool, it would drive me freakin insane. There are few things I hate more than:

1. Taking more than 5 minutes to stuff lunch down my face
2. Doing it with co-workers.

Whenever I've tried to eat with co-workers, I'm tapping my foot and looking anxious after 10 minutes.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

So, I think that says a lot about you and your co-workers, maybe?

Everyone here seems to get along pretty well. I haven't been here long enough to see what interpersonal issues exist, but on cursory examination most people seem to like it okay.

Also, it's voluntary; the guy next to me in the office, one of the senior coders, never eats with anyone. He eats at his desk. No one seems to hold that against him.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Oh, and no offense meant, btw. I've worked in offices where this arrangement wouldn't ever work. But the fact that it does seems to say something about this workplace.

[hawver.livejournal.com]

Oh, no offense taken. It's not that I don't love my co-workers, it's more that I hate eating, or more specifically, I hate taking the time to eat.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

When I worked in a couple of different German companies in the 90's, neither of them did this. Of course, those were both pretty big companies.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yah, it may be this startup; the principals were all graduate students together, and the place kind of has the feel of a university research group. So maybe that's where this is from.

[muffyjo]

How wonderful. When I was in Germany we had a smaller office there and they did not have that system going so I daresay it's not usual. :) How wonderful.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yah, I'm gradually working out just how much of this company's culture is quirky all to itself, and how much is German.

[karakara98.livejournal.com]

The company I used to work for in the U.S. did do that! It was just a once a week thing, and people didn't chip in to cover cost. But the responsibility for providing lunch ever Thurday did rotate among people in the office. Like yours, we had about 15 people in the office, so about once per quarter you were expected to feed everyone else. Sometimes people cooked, and sometimes people ordered in.

It was more of a top down mandate from one of the owners of the company (it was family owned). It almost died when one of the family members routinely showed up for lunch (it was about the only time we saw him in the office) but repeatedly shirked when his turn came up.

But yes, it can be a nice thing in a small office.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I suddenly get the feeling, reading your post, that the "chip in for costs per meal" plan was instituted after people "forgot" to pay. Or maybe it was planned that way from the beginning, as a way to deter free-riders.

[noire.livejournal.com]

J does a lot of work with a small company in Munich, and I don't think they do that at all. I think they either go out or get lunches delivered, at least when he's been working there.

So it might be just this company. Or it might be more common, but not ubiquitious.

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! I need to start up a company of vegetarians and do this. My friend Caely is on a 4-way rotation where each person once a month spends all afternoon cooking an elaborate Sunday dinner, which sounds like a great deal to me.

[kateorama.livejournal.com]

Sounds great. On a group vacation a couple of years ago, I had hoped to create something like that system for our dinners... but it turns out I have a bunch of very food-persnickety friends, and there was an enormous e-mail fiasco with actual charts (who's eating when, who has what dietary limitations), and all this back-and-forth about who was cooking when, and OH MY GOD it was like torture. I mean, the food turned out okay, but the tension of getting to the point of making and eating it was, uh, a detriment to the vacation. Plus, people varied significantly in the quality and spontaneity of their cleaning cooperation. Hmph. Damn entitled Americans.