Is this normal - bring & make at work

[Ceci03]

So yesterday at work an event was Organised - just for our office. I'd say about 30 people altogether. Everyone was asked to bring in some food some savoury some sweet. I had the idea we were to make something but bought some dips and breadsticks in the end. Anyway it was to start at 1 and run til 230. At about 1230 the 2 girls from reception started laying out all the food on a table in the corner of the office. Pretty large open plan office. Everyone was sat at their computers. Eventually around 110 my colleague beside me said he was going up to get some food. A little queue formed. I wandered over to a girl I'm friendly with and said shall we get some food but she said she was busy. So I went up by myself and got a few bits on my plate. I hovered round my friends desk but she was still
Busy so I went back to my desk. Everyone did that. Got their food and went back to their desks and continued working on their computers. It just felt really weird . I thought we would chat and pull some chairs over . But no. I thought it a bit miserable. And my 2 managers worked from home. After saying we all had to come in for this event. Am raging and trying not to be.

My company pays for food delivery once a week (pasta, pizza, shepard's pie, veggie options, roast etc) and we sit together in our kitchen and eat. We are around 45 people. It's the one mandatory day we have to work in-office.

If it is a particular busy time you take your plate back to your desk but I would say there are two departments only and mostly when they are short-staffed who do this.

It's quite nice. And the managers/team heads are luckily well liked so it's not that we think "Oh, it's XY again, I am sitting next to".

God, that sounds dire! I'd be raging too. At least you can work on a handy excuse for any other ocassions!

Yay! Office fuddle. You eat home baked crap and crisps/other junk that people randomly picked up at the local M&S Food/any nearby shop/out of their kitchen cupboards at your desks instead of whatever you might have actually wanted to eat.

Had more of these than I can count pre-pandemic - we never chatted to each other either while we ate. Welcome to low-rent, corporate ‘fun’ to ‘bring the team together’. Lynn’s soggy samosas promote a positive working culture, don’tcha know? 😁. Lucky you, @Ceci03 - at least it wasn’t a blinking team escape room at lunchtime for ‘bonding’ like we all seemed to be subjected to around five years ago 😂

I would have sat by the food for an hour.

All sounds utter pointless and pretty miserable tbh.

On top of that the managers making everyone come in for such a non-event and then not turning up themselves would have annoyed me.

You'll know next time.

I would be annoyed at being told I 'had' to be in the office for that, seems a bit pointless. Especially in the middle of waves for covid/flu/RSV/norovirus. Do they want staff making each other ill unnecessarily? Do you get proper paid sick leave if people get ill due to this?
For the people who needed to be in on that day anyway it's a nice idea, shame no one had time to stop work for a chat.

It’s how we do it too, but we’re a responsive workplace so can’t just all stop work

Yes, I agree. I feel like this about 'away days'; 'team bonding activities'; 'ice breakers'... all said and done at the end of these sessions I have generally noticed that birds of a feather will continue to flock together. Cliques will be cliques, non-cliques will be non-cliques!

I often wonder how fucking unaware you have to be to give your team a three line whip to be in the office for something and then not be there yourself. Honestly, these people should not be allowed to be line managers.

Certainly not normal in any place I've ever worked. We used to sit in the staff room and chat and eat - far more civilised!

Lots of people just want to be at work to work and not to participate in forced fun. That’s why it is quite mad for companies to force people in for this type of thing. Not everyone enjoys it!

Fair enough, but surely those who don't enjoy it just stay at their desks and work rather than participating. No-one is being "forced", and in my experience most people enjoy eating and chatting to their workmates.

Me too - and eaten as much of it as I could 😂

I'd have been glad not to have to talk to the feckers lol!

We have these food days quite often, I love them as I adore the home cooked Indian food some colleagues bring in. We always set up a table with a cloth on and make sure plenty of chairs around, and encourage people to stay and eat / chat. You’ll always get a few who got and eat at their desk, and that ok but seems a bit pointless if no-one eats together

This would never happen where I work, we aren’t allowed to eat at our desks. The managers working from home also sounds really poor if there was a social event organised.

Sounds a bit rubbish. Not quite rage inducing 😂 was there any decent food?

This sounds amazing and how lucky to have some Indian colleagues who can cook 🤤🤤🤤

Do you work for a local council? I used to work at the council in a Housing team and this happened every time. Was always so disappointed! People had to get back to their desks to man the phones etc.

Doesn't sound like much of an "event" to me .

To be honest @Ceci03 I think this sounds pretty typical post-Covid. There is still an expectation that this kind of team building activity will happen, but in reality most people are not into it and many do not even turn up. Ironically, the management team, who are most important to ensure success, are the ones that feel under least pressure to attend.

I think raging is a bit much. Slightly pissed off would be more appropriate.

YANBU. It was very unprofessional of your managers not to have been there, especially after their staff made the effort.

I have worked in offices where that sort of thing happened. However, the tone is generally set by the managers. In this case, they were WFH.
Where I worked many years ago, and pre-covid, the managers would have brought in a bottle of wine to share around, made a speech about how well we were doing, or similar, and people would have stopped work to chat for a while, before returning to work.
Yes, it is a bit lame, but sounds better than what OP experienced.

You were in a rage 😂
Hulk smash ?

I’ve had similar in an office lunch. Some people brought food in, some others didn’t but ate anyway, most didn’t stop working. It was crap.

Take the piss out of it at every opportunity so they never forget it was shit!
It sounded fairly bad to begin with, an hour and a half at lunchtime and you bring your own food, no thanks.