open letter to joel spolsky

[rone]

I'm sure that you didn't mean to sound like this, but your recent entry about lunch at work comes across as if you're practically peer-pressuring coworkers to lunch together, which can't be a good thing.  How do you deal with introverts or people with Asperger syndrome?  It's good to welcome new people, and encourage social behavior (especially because lunch should be a real break and not simply the time of the day when you eat at your desk).  But if i worked with you, your use of the words "not negotiable" for the concept of eating with your coworkers doesn't make me want to have lunch with you.

Comments

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

I think he needs a little therapy and to get over junior high.

Newsflash: many employees use lunchtime to do essential non-work errands or to get equally essential "me time." Others have food allergies that make eating with the herd difficult to impossible.

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

The "eat lunch together" thing is an American peculiarity. The whole idea of a school cafeteria is pretty much alien to me, and workplaces with any sort of "lunch" space are pretty rare here too: it's assumed you'll either go and eat lunch somewhere else, or bring it to your desk and eat it.

(Schools have what they call a "tuck shop", which is usually volunteer-run and sells random food items to those kids who have money to spend on it, but typically there's no tables or special area, whether you buy or bring you just take it and sit wherever outside you want.)

[bryant]

"Every developer, tester, and program manager is in a private office." That's about where he lost me, back in the day, given that he's got some technical specialists who don't fall into those categories.

"our jail cells have doors!"

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

Never trust a "software development expert" who's better known for his blog about software development expertise than for developing software products.

ESPECIALLY not one who has "Visual Basic for Applications" on his CV.

[kodi]

It's great, because it's the kind of practice that everyone knows you're supposed to like. So anyone who actually doesn't like it will just keep their mouth shut, and hey presto - everyone is happier now that they're forced to eat lunch together!

[alfvaen]

I like to eat lunch by myself and read, though sometimes it's hard to concentrate because of the people watching "30 Rock" reruns in the lunchroom. But it's better than eating at my desk, because I hate eating at my desk. I'm just not that neat. Talking with people and being sociable is okay, I guess, but then I fall behind on my reading.

[some_other_dave]

Devil's Advocate:

He said that the *importance* is non-negotiable. Not necessarily that the *action* was non-negotiable. True, there is an implication that everyone should be pressured into eating together, but at least he stops short of saying that it is mandatory.

Full disclosure: Much of my group tends to eat lunch together. Not everyone, and not every day, but often.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I'm a non-engineer, but I run the front office of a college. My job REQUIRES that I be friendly, sociable, and engaged with people's needs.
From 12-1, I get out of that office like my pants are on fire, go to the Student Union, let the crowd flow around me, put on my headphones, eat, knit or crochet, and peoplewatch.
I hate to say it, because my coworkers are great people, but if I was expected to be social with them ALL the time, I'd burn out! Going somewhere and quietly appreciating the bustle of university life lets me get something back for my efforts without expending all my energy.
It's not just engineers that like their "me" time....

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I had a similar reaction, too. I'm constantly in social mode at work. We have meetings, we have drop-bys, we chat in the halls. Taking some time out in the middle of the day is recharging for me. And, well, it's my damn time. My employer doesn't get to tell me how I spend my personal time.

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

This. My work requires me to herd cats, be Patient, and Encouraging, and not Poke People Who Direly Deserve It. We waste a LOT of time in meetings, so lunchtime is time for me to

eat
have time to work
or work through lunch so I can leave early and hit the gym or a class or a business networking event.

It's great advice if you WANT to work with those people or ascend that particular ladder. But if you are trying to move on, wiser to focus your efforts on what gets you want you want.

Sigh. One size fits all advice often does not.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I've been on teams where we routinely went out to the bar together, and I've been on teams where I'd rather stab myself in the head than do that.

A daily required lunch meeting sounds like Mandatory Fun to me, and I'm not interested for a couple reasons. I don't do meetings, and I've been on the 'show up when you feel like it' schedule for about ten years now, so when I eat lunch isn't constant from day to day. If invited, I think I'd say "Yeah, that's not gonna work for me".

[xythen.livejournal.com]

The importance of drinking the group kool-aid and singing the corporate song is also non-negotiable!

You pay for that food and that time- you can have a say in who I eat with and where I eat it. Otherwise, fuck off.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

In this particular case, he is paying for the food (whether he's paying for the time is debatable when it comes to salaried employees). But i don't think that has anything to do with it.

[xythen.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a place I would be looking for an exit from as soon as I could.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Wait, he's buying the food? THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.


(You can take the student out of the grad school but you can't take grad school out of the student.)

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

There might be a good capitalist model there.

"I need you to come to the meeting tonight to discuss the new features. ...uh... ...beer at the Sweetwater?"
"Nope. The technology steering committee is offering the steak tips at Uno's."
"Pork chops and beer at the Sweetwater, then."
"And two scotches."
"One scotch."
"Deal."

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think Microsoft has an employee training video specifically warning about that.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I wonder if he makes his coworkers hold hands when they cross the street together. "Look left then right then left everybody!"

[epileptikitty.livejournal.com]

Spolsky knows much less than he thinks. 'Geek culture' is Asperger's Syndrome crossed with an 11-year-old's sense of morality as a way of life.

"Not negotiable": OCD includes "my way or the highway".

Thank god I'm home based...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

And in general, lunchbreak is me time.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Speaking of lunchbreak, it's time to devour my leftovers...

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

As opposed to your worshippers, which would make you one of the Old Ones...