Super Fun Lunch

At the clinic/treatment center that I work at I host something called the “Super Fun Lunch”. The idea is simple; coworkers bring in food to share with others for lunch – that’s it. Because we have such a diverse staff, the types of food we eat range from excellent peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to Indian curries - people also buy stuff to bring in which is fine (this one guy always buys spicy Thai fried rice - Me)

Food is really not the point, it just the vehicle to help the newer people get together with the older people and have a “recess” from work. F, if lawyers can have a recess so should doctors, nurses, janitors, kitchen staff, maintenance, orderlies, and day care teachers (well they do have recess) but my point is physiologically you need a mental break so one can develop a more positive outlook on their work.

The lunch was created for a purely selfish reason. Late last year I was battling a strange squirrel related illness. There was a woman, who was the wife of a co-worker (later she joined the staff) who I was introduced to when I was in the hospital. She brought me yellow flowers (I still have some of dried). I thought it was the worst first impression I could give to someone. She had no idea who this guy was and yet she came to visit me and give me flowers – I would have stayed home if I was her.

When I came back to work she was temporally helping us out with a research project and I wanted to in some way pay her back…for causing her some awkwardness and perhaps sadness when she met me that day. So I create the Super Fun Lunch. The “Super Fun Lunch” name was actually joke when I started it, but after the first few lunches, people started to refer to the event by that name.


As time went on I noticed some strange observations, some people would:

• Not bring in food
• Get mad when people did not bring in food
• Have a good time
• Bring food but then not eat with the rest us
• Bring food just for them
• Feel ready to get back to the problem that they were working on
• Judge what other people brought in
• Have some internal ego struggle of who would eat all of “my” food first
• Get upset when all of their food was not eaten
• Know each others name for the first time
• Get upset when all of their food was eaten before they could have any
• Go overboard with trying to be gourmet
• Feel guilty if they did not bring in anything
• Share stuff that obviously was not really meant to be shared
• Forget when the event was even though they were reminded by phone, email and face to
• face the day before
• The people that were at the Super Fun Lunch were seen as a “group”
• Mock the event yet deep down felt a sense of jealousy that they were not a part of the “group”