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Besides blogging as a hobby and a potential side business, I also work an 8-5 job.
I love almost everything about my job. I’m passionate about the work that I do and the impact that it makes.
I enjoy working with and seeing my colleagues every day.
They greet me with a smile every morning when I come to work.
I say good-bye to my co-workers every day before I go home.
I talk to them about my problems, and they give me great advice on how to resolve them.
I tell them about my work, and they share with me what they do.
I admire the great work of my senior colleagues and aspire to be one of them one day.
I like my desk. It’s not a tiny cubicle that you see on TV. There is definitely enough space for me to share it with someone else.
At my desk, I display the gifts that my colleagues have gotten me from all over the world.
One thing that I also love about my job is the free food it provides.
We don’t have free food all the time. When we do on special occasions (i.e. brownbag, end-of-the-year party), I just get super excited and enjoy the food a great deal.
1. It’s FREE.
This is probably the most important reason why I like the food provided at work. I can eat Whole Foods catering, tuna wraps, Thai food, and other delicious cuisine without worrying about how much it costs me.
I always think of it as me eating out without having to pick a restaurant or pay for it.
Grilled chicken, fried dumplings, spring rolls & edamame
You might think that if I worked for myself, retired, or telecommuted to save on transportation costs, I could buy much more delicious food than that.
But it’s not the point. I like being physically in the office with my colleagues regardless of whether there’s free food or not. The free food just makes the office much more enjoyable.
Pork ribs, barbecue beef, grilled pork, casserole & corn bread
2. It helps me save money.
Since the food is free, it definitely helps me save money on lunch. Oftentimes there are leftovers, so I also pack some for lunch the next day.
Sometimes I feel like eating out. But once we have free food in the office, the urge is no longer there. I’m back to being happy with my home-cooked meals.
Thai food: coconut rice, beef pad see ew, chicken curry, stir-fried veggies & papaya salad
3. It helps me stay away from sugar.
Believe it or not, I do crave sweets every once in a while (probably once every two weeks). I didn’t grow up eating sweets for dessert or snacks all the time, so it’s not a habit of mine.
Instead of buying a big box of cookies or a huge cake from the store and eating it for days on end, I can eat a small cookie or a piece of cheesecake at work. And I’ll be good for the whole month.
So pretty!
I normally don’t buy cake.
Pecan pie – It was a bit too sweet for my taste. I’m glad I didn’t buy it.
4. I can try the food I usually don’t buy.
Sometimes I can try the delicious food I have never bought or probably won’t buy because of the price. Every time I try something new and tasty, I feel like my horizon has been broadened to a new level.
For example, I had never had smoked salmon wrap until it was provided in the office. Needless to say, it was delicious!
Smoked salmon wrap, pita bread & hummus, mango mousse & honey dew
5. Time to catch up with colleagues
I work in a relatively big office. Most of the time people on one side of the office don’t see those on the other side. But when there’s free food, everyone is at the same place at the same time.
It’s great to feel a sense of togetherness and to catch up with my colleagues on what they’ve been up to. Sometimes it feels a bit like a big family gathering, especially during the holidays. And I love it!
Conclusion
Sometimes I wonder if the free food will make up for a job that I hate. The answer is probably no. I don’t want to feel miserable at a job that I dislike just to enjoy some food I don’t have to pay for.
Luckily, I like both my job and the free food it provides. That’s why I’m not thinking of retiring early any time soon. Life’s good, so I’ll just let it be.
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While I am glad I work from home 99% of the time, I do miss the time with coworkers and the occasional free food in the office! Oftentimes, there would be several sandwiches left over that would be pitched, so I would grab them for an easy dinner too 😉
Oh yes I do the same thing haha. I think everyone in my office also likes an easy dinner option 😀
At my work, there is a birthday celebration every third Friday of the month. A couple of times a year, we will also have lunch to celebrate a holiday or a big accomplishment that our team had completed.
All these food are free and it shows that our senior management team appreciates the little guys working hard to achieve our organization goals.
A little free food can definitely build great motivation and team spirit for the whole organization.
“A little free food can definitely build great motivation and team spirit for the whole organization.”
I totally agree. Food brings people together and makes us happy hehe 😉
I’m all for free food, but admittedly it was a bit tough when Kristin and I were trying to lose weight and they’d bring in pizza 🙂 Couldn’t have any of it sadly!
Oh yes those pizzas when I was trying to lose weight. I think I gave in sometimes haha. After that, I’d feel super guilty and be more determined to lose weight lol
I love when there’s free food at work! My old job had free food all the time, now it is rare! It’s definitely something I’ll miss when I early retire!
That sounds great! I sometimes enjoy people working at companies that provide free food all day every day 😀
My previous employer used to offer free food once while. Sometimes the boss invited the whole team to a nice restaurant, to connect as a team. After the 08-09 financial crisis, the only thing you saw was the pizzas, for those all-day-long meetings.
We have a lot of benefits working in government but free food is not one of them…at least very rarely. When there is an office party, everybody chips in. Even for coffee/creamer/milk, everyone chips in. We get free water but in my previous government job…we chipped in for water too!!
Oh yeah, at these places they serve free food and it’s usually fancy premade expensive stuff that I don’t even consider buying for myself. It’s a great treat!! I hate that they up charge for sharing sizes. I’ve been eyeing mini sampler cheesecake but they’re 2x expensive as regular size cheesecake slices!!! 🙁
I couldn’t agree more – I love free food! One of the things I love about it is that it saves me time. If I know there’ll be free lunch, I don’t spend the time in the morning packing a lunch. It gives me a few extra minutes to myself, which always feels like such a treat.
I do miss delicious lunches and conversations with co-workers when I commuted to work. Now that I telecommute 100%, I have settled for my own leftovers for lunch. But the trade-off is being in my PJs and commuting down the hallway to my office.
Who doesn’t love free food? What’s even better is when employers give higher raises instead of freebies every so often.
Hehe free food, it’s always great. ? But now I have a habit of never eating when I’m on shift at the hospital. Just water seems to keep me going fine, intermittent fasting sure is convenient!
Aside from that, my days of amateur speed eating where I could eat a 5lb burger + sides in 20 minutes escapes me now… ? Probably for the best!
I definitely understand the benefit of free food. And it sounds like you work with a great group of people!
Funny, but I hated free food when I worked in my office. I would be tempted to eat more than normal. Whether it was catered meals, pizza, bagels or holiday lunches at a restaurant, by 12:00 I’d probably consume about two thirds of the calories I need in a day. Meanwhile all I really want in the morning is my coffee and a banana and I’m content not to eat until mid-afternoon. I was much better off telecommuting and so were my hips.
Ahhh yes, free food is great especially getting it at work. You don’t have to worry about going out or having time to make your lunch. Luckily I get free breakfast and lunch at work although its a nice perk, it can also be bad because you may not like the food or you eat more than you usually do. Which is why I sometimes bring my own lunch so I know how much I’ll be eating.
I get free food at work as well. You may view it as a perk, but remember your company isn’t doing it out of generosity. They know that when you have free food, you’ll stay at work longer. It’s still nice to have, I just don’t consider it a free perk.
That free food looks DELICIOUS!! The most we get is sometimes at meetings one of my colleagues bakes, and he bakes SO WELL. He has this pecan brownie recipe that is to do for. Sometimes we get some cookies and donuts too and cake, but that’s pretty much it. Just baked goods, not delicious thai food or anything savoury!