Office Foods

Do you have a policy?

If your team is coming back in-person again, it’s a good time to remind everyone not to be jerks when it comes to food in the office.

Consider offering healthy snacks as freebies in the office. Individual servings of nuts or raisins (which can be stored), or apples and bananas (which need to be purchased every few days) are not ridiculously expensive, and they can take the edge off. While many people love chocolate-covered treats or deep-fried salty snacks, offering them as freebies won’t be good for your company’s bottom line or your staff members’ waistlines.

Have a system for the fridge. Consider having a sharpie and a pack of labels next to the shared fridge, so people can mark the food they bring in as theirs. Consider also having a webcam pointed at the fridge to deter the massive office drama of having one person steal another person’s yogurt (oh, the drama!). If you have people with dietary restrictions (allergies, religious restrictions, vegan, etc.), consider offering a separate small fridge and/or microwave for their exclusive use. Consider having a policy that anything left after 3pm on Friday will be thrown out by a designated staffer or member of the cleaning crew, who also has the duty to wipe down the fridge interior with disinfecting wipes at this time.

Adopt a policy of avoiding smelly foods in the cubes. People should not be microwaving fish in the office, and some people still need to be told that this is how the world should be.

(Photo by Christoffer Engström on Unsplash)