Provide ideas to prevent employees from taking advantage of free lunch

May 2, 2017 12:16 PM

My office regularly hosts informational meetings with vendors. Generally those vendors provide free lunch as an inducement to attend. A trend has developed where employees walk in before the meeting, take food, and leave. Any clever ways to stop this?

It's embarrassing for those that provide the lunch and can sometimes leave us with less supply than needed.

Short of having a ticket system or some other administrative/operational policing, is there any way to prevent this? The people doing the stealing tend to be senior, which means the only one that can effectively shame these employees is the CEO. We might have him send an email to deal with this, but even then I don't think it will really do anything.

Another problem is the employees will take two or three servings (sandwiches, wraps, cookies, etc.) leaving those that actually attend the meeting with nothing.

We're looking for clever solutions - serve lunch at the end for example, though then it defeats the purpose of a lunch meeting and doesn't prevent people from taking lunch at the end. Maybe serve midway through? Then it disrupts the flow of the presentation.

posted by teabag to Work & Money (45 answers total)

I would put out a sign that says "lunch is for meeting attendees only". Try to shame the thieves.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:19 PM on May 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Serving at the end won't work, people will time their arrival to coincide with the end of the program.

Have the reps set up a Google Forms trivia contest about the product, which they must complete for a ticket to the next lunch, or a gift certificate for free ice cream or something elsewhere.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:20 PM on May 2, 2017

Best answer: First, an all-hands email: just a reminder that vendor lunches are specifically ordered for attendees only. We keep being in the embarrassing situation of promising lunch we cannot provide, it looks bad. Thanks for your cooperation.

Then, a human barricade between wanting food and having food. "We'll put it in the break room if there's anything left over (you fucking monster), okay?"
posted by Lyn Never at 12:20 PM on May 2, 2017 [66 favorites]

Best answer: You don't need clever solutions. You need a directive, from the CEO if need be, saying under no circumstances is anyone allowed to come and take lunch if they are not attending the meeting. If you can't attend the meeting you are welcome to leftovers, once the meeting has concluded.
posted by vignettist at 12:20 PM on May 2, 2017 [58 favorites]

Whoever is holding the meeting should be greeting people as they come in asking them to sign a sign-in form and then the food should be on the far side of the room.
posted by raccoon409 at 12:21 PM on May 2, 2017 [39 favorites]

(And wow, because everywhere I've ever worked this would be Wrath of God stuff, up to and including the office manager telling the CEO we needed to start ordering separate food for the CFO and Director of Nosepicking because they keep stealing the lunch-and-learn food.)
posted by Lyn Never at 12:22 PM on May 2, 2017 [22 favorites]

I doubt that any "system" to control this will work, anything you work out will be overridden by their sense of entitlement and arrogance.. The problem is that, if the CEO doesn't mind, there isn't any incentive not to snag free food. Ask the CEO to speak to them privately, explain why it is a problem and tell them (not ask them) to stop.
posted by HuronBob at 12:23 PM on May 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

No tickets, because this is demeaning for the poeple who are not abusing the system. It is possible (I am doing my best to be generous here) that the lunch thieves do not realise that there isnt enough to go around, and that their taking food means actual attendees are going without.

The CEO must send this email, and must point out that:
1. Lunch food in meetings is ONLY for meeting attendees
2. The current situation means that meeting attendees are going without food because others have unfairly taken it when they aren't attending
3. This makes your company look bad to vendors! If I was a vendor and I saw this happening, I would have a very unfavorable opinion of the staff at this company - what a bunch of over-privileged, self-centered wankers!
posted by Joh at 12:26 PM on May 2, 2017 [11 favorites]

Maybe don't serve lunch until you've closed the door of the conference room, and do it in the front of the room and not the back? Or have the lunches individually packaged and hand them out instead of making them free to take?

Also, this is a Key and Peele sketch.
posted by cnc at 12:26 PM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

-Set up a video camera pointed directly at the entrance/exit to the room and/or the lunch table. If employees start complaining, then say that it's for event documentation.
-Set up a "fake" lunch of cheap foods like white bread, bologna, generic soda, sugar cookies, popcorn, etc. first. Then when the scavengers have eaten their fill, put out the real lunch.
posted by FJT at 12:28 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Speaking as an employee who's stolen a free lunch or two in the past (sorry!), the best deterrent is individual attention from someone running the meeting. Like a person standing near the food saying "welcome! We're so glad you decided to join us!" and/or doing a sign in sheet, name tags, asking what interests you about the topic, etc.

An email noting that there is sometimes not enough food might work too. The motivation to steal lunch is if it feels a) free and plentiful or b) there's loads of people and you won't be noticed.
posted by cpatterson at 12:30 PM on May 2, 2017 [23 favorites]

When we do things like this, meals are handed out after the presentation begins. The presenter knows that the first 5 minutes are going to be during this handout period, so they usually have a basic slide up with contact info and maybe a few summary bullet points but are nevertheless talking through their intro material. No extra meals are left lying about, they're taken away. People munch during the presentation, and no one gets any without showing up.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:30 PM on May 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

These people are probably mostly doing this to save time. They don't see any reason lunch shouldn't just magically appear for them.

Maybe invite them to organize a lunch delivery system for themselves?
posted by amtho at 12:30 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Holy cats, were these people raised by wolves?!

If there's really no one that can talk to them without causing a company-wide shitstorm, you need the social engineering. Arrange everything so that someone whose plan is to waltz in, take food, and split before anyone notices gets noticed and is forced to say, out loud, "Oh, no, I was just here to take your free food, I'm not actually interested in your product in the slightest."

Y'all need table tents, brochures, sign-in sheets and personal handshakes from either the vendor rep or whoever the liaison within your company is. "Hi, welcome, nice to see you here! Sign in here so we can contact you if there's any follow-up information after the presentation. And $vendor likes to learn everyone's names, so here's a table tent if you could just fill that out real quick and place it at your seat. Would you like some lit? Oh, and by the way, we're serving lunch right over there [in the far, far, furthest corner from the door], please enjoy a wrap while you learn all about $product."
posted by soren_lorensen at 12:36 PM on May 2, 2017 [14 favorites]

I was going to endorse the personal-greeting-and-engagement-about-product but the table tent thing is pretty genius. Noooo one wants to be in that awkward situation more than once.
posted by stoneandstar at 12:38 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Would it be possible for the vendors to put out very sparse offerings before the meeting starts, and then the real lunch gets put out once the presentation gets going?
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:38 PM on May 2, 2017

The CEO doesn't need to send an email! His or her assistant can send the email. Or the office manager. But honestly, a CEO sending an email about stealing lunches at office meetings is pretty over the top.

Have whoever the top admin person is send the email, then have him or her stand there monitoring the lunch table the next couple of times you have a meeting. The end. People will get the message. If they start up again in a while, repeat this method.

It would be extra awesome if the admin manager sent personalized emails calling out those who kept doing the stealing, but speaking as the admin manager in my own office, I don't really have the time or gumption to get into it with individual employees because I spend my time and gumption instead bossing people around on metafilter.
posted by something something at 12:43 PM on May 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

Nthing the greeter suggested above. I regularly have events where it would be completely inappropriate if it disappeared before the guests arrive or is picked over and the bst stuff taken leaving a mess. To avoid this position a staff member (not an intern or catering staff but someone capable of smiling at senior staff and deterring them from taking the food. I usually do it myself as even upper management accepts if I shoo them away as the senior event manager. And every once in a while i purposely order too much and then after our guests have eaten invite everyone to get the left overs. So they know i mean it when i send them away. But the point is it only works if the person guarding the food is senior enough. Also, placing the food far into the room is deterrent, if you can set it up eg so one has to clear the whole room it helps.
posted by 15L06 at 12:45 PM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Honestly, people probably don't realize that there isn't enough to go around. I've been in a number of office environments where, when lunch is catered, there's always more than enough. In such an environment, given that the food is perishable, it's not an offense against social decency to snag a sandwich. So just send the email emphasizing that extras aren't ordered and vendors are running out of food for actual attendees. That should weed out all but the truly committed jerks.
posted by praemunire at 12:47 PM on May 2, 2017 [13 favorites]

To senior Managment it works well for me to say something like: you know this is from xyz budget, the underfunded one (they know i draw those budgets up so we both know its true).
posted by 15L06 at 12:49 PM on May 2, 2017

When this was done at the company where I worked for many years, the vendor personally brought in the lunch. The lunch was set inside the meeting room, and vendor stayed there with it until the meeting was done. The closest anyone could get to freeloading was not paying attention during the presentation.
posted by heatvision at 12:52 PM on May 2, 2017

I had a very similar situation at my workplace once, although actually even more embarrassing (long story short, employees at my workplace, led by a horrible person who was the ringleader, were taking lunch brought in for guests of another building tenant). And yeah, the email is the way to go. Our facilities Grand Pooh-Bah Woo Bah guy sent an email sternly noting that this situation was really embarrassing to us and everyone who worked here, and it was to stop immediately. The ringleader acted all outraged and anyone would try to deny her anything she wanted any time she wanted, but everyone else was chastened enough to stop and when the ringleader didn't have the safety of a bunch of other people around her, she stopped, as did the lunch taking.
posted by holborne at 12:52 PM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Eh, this feels like the vendors' problem, not yours. Put the food at the opposite side of the room from the doors, so that the food-thieves need to walk right up to the vendor to steal the food. And when you're deciding how much food to order tell the vendor that you expect X people but there are also always like Y freeloaders who will take food and not stay for the presentation, and they're higher ups and there's not much to be done about it.

Send the email if you think it will help, but if a vendor doesn't care to buttonhole people as they sneak lunch, I assumes she considers it part of the cost of doing business.
posted by mskyle at 12:56 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, this is heinous. I have been known to lurk in hopes that there will BE leftovers from a free lunch, and be first in line to grab 'em when they're officially Fair Game, but I would never do a grab and run on a fresh and untouched pile.

Nthing that the things you need are (1) a stern email to everyone, (2) a sign that lunch is for attendees only, and (3) someone to stand next to the lunches while people are coming in, and greet/look the takers in the eye. Then, say 10 minutes after start time, the Lunch Guard conspicuously abandons their post, and it becomes clear to one and all that the food is now Fair Game for hyenas.

But if your senior folk are impervious to shame, this won't really work.
posted by telepanda at 1:01 PM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Put out a tip jar prominently with the food? I remember reading some behavorial economics thing once where people stole fewer bagels if there was a tip jar.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:44 PM on May 2, 2017

Ah, the greeter or host needs to stay by the door so that anyone attempting to leave with food (which should be on the far side of the room) is met with "Oh no, you don't need to go - there's plenty of seats!".

Nth that if you can afford it order extras so there's leftovers in the kitchen or spring for and leave treats in the kitchen periodically so folks feel rewarded without...stealing.
posted by jrobin276 at 2:06 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is nasty but you'll only have to do it once. Put one of the people who is lunch stealing on the spot at the next department/company meeting in front of a lot of their colleagues and ask them to share with the group what they learnt during the vendor presentation. Watch them stammer and die of embarrassment. If they're going to act like children, treat them like that.

Then announce that you'll be randomly asking anyone who is seen in the lunch area to share with the group information so you can all benefit from their attendance. Also, in a non related topic, food served there are only for attendees and you're sure no one will be eating there who isn't actually at the function. #end meeting#
posted by Jubey at 2:09 PM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Will the CEO have your back on fixing the problem? The vendors and meeting organizers should not be forced to act like elementary school teachers' aides preventing children from grabbing snacks they're not entitled to because of lousy behavior by senior staff nor should junior staff have to physically sign into meetings to prevent the same. Making low power people jump through hoops to prevent crass action by powerful people is a surefire way to breed resentment between the regular staff and your seniors.

the only one that can effectively shame these employees is the CEO. ... Another problem is the employees will take two or three servings (sandwiches, wraps, cookies, etc.) leaving those that actually attend the meeting with nothing.

They're acting shameless. They need to be shamed.
posted by Candleman at 2:11 PM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Definitely send email from the CEO, and if you don't have staff to stand around for a half hour or whatever, put a sign on the table "Reminder: food is for attendees only, thanks!", put the food at the front of the room as far from the door as possible, and DON'T UNWRAP IT until just as people are trickling in. If it's a large sandwich platter it's covered in cling wrap, right? Don't undo it. Make it awkward until just as the meeting is beginning. The thieves would have to be really bold to come into the room, ignore the sign, AND unwrap the plates to steal their meal.
posted by clone boulevard at 2:17 PM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

(I worked for a consulting company that pretty much every day had food brought in for some client meeting or another and we would freely scavenge if it looked already picked over, but if it was still wrapped up it was completely understood that that was CLIENT ONLY AND DO NOT TOUCH AND BAD BAD BAD)
posted by clone boulevard at 2:19 PM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Yes, email--- hopefully some of them may not realize this leaves legit attendees short their meal, and would be mortified to know this. Some of them might just be following the crowd because nobody told them not to. I could see thoughtlessly doing this if everyone else did (and I'm not a monster.)

Doesn't have to come from the CEO (that would be weird IMO.)

There should be an RSVP to attend these (google invites make this very easy. ) Then an admin/facilities person/whoever greets at the door with the list (doesn't actually have to check off names, just a person at the door with a list will be a deterrent.)
posted by kapers at 2:24 PM on May 2, 2017

This used to happen at my office. The answer was very simple - stern email to all about the problem, asking staff not to disrupt meetings hunting out food, also noting that leftovers will be in "kitchen A" from (meeting end time) to (whatever time it's been left out too long). Keep lunch wrapped and not self-servable until after the doors close and the meeting begins. Keep doors closed during meeting, even when/if you break from lunch.
posted by SassHat at 2:28 PM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh and I forgot to add - a different office I worked at solved this problem by ordering individual servings of everything, labeled with attendees names. No just dropping in and chatting for five minutes to grab a sandwich - either you rsvp and pick your sandwich/salad or you get nothing.
posted by SassHat at 2:30 PM on May 2, 2017 [7 favorites]

It's not the vendor's problem that the employees are taking the food. It's the businesses problem for not setting up a theft free environment (from the pov of the vendor). And for the business, their employees may not be stealing, just having a misunderstanding of what is being offered. So start there. Let the employees 'know' that the food is only for guests of the vendor and they are welcome to attend the event, etc. Be very clear, and if it keeps happening, just take steps to escalate. That way, of people are taking food thinking they are welcome to it, they will stop without being embarrassed. And the people who continue to take food, knowing they are stealing, can be addressed accordingly.
posted by Vaike at 3:11 PM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Order enough for everyone.
posted by jbenben at 3:21 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Then the vendor is out of pocket supplying lunch to everyone in the building and there's no incentive to attend, because you'll get a free lunch anyway.
posted by Jubey at 3:24 PM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

The people doing the stealing tend to be senior,

Someone above their pay grade needs to address this problem.

My office regularly hosts informational meetings with vendors. Generally those vendors provide free lunch as an inducement to attend.

This is a serious business related issue. If the people upstairs cannot see that this is treating vendors in bad faith and also treating employees in bad faith and is a potential real threat to the future of the business, then you may not be able to fix this.

I would bring it to the attention of the CEO's admin. If their assistance does nothing, I would then try to bring it up with the CEO. If they do not address this very firmly in the manner of "there will be consequences for such thievery up to and including firing" and make it clear that you can have the leftovers, if there are any, in X break room but you are NOT to steal the food from the attendees, then maybe start looking for another job? Because shitting all over everyone involved is no way to lead a company anywhere good and if the person at the very top is fine with other senior people doing this, this is not a healthy place to work.

The CEO probably does not know about this just now. Or hasn't really thought about it. But if you bring it to their attention and they are all "meh, whatevs." I would start planning my exit strategy.
posted by Michele in California at 3:27 PM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Put a note out saying "meeting attendees only" with a picture of eyes on it.

We examined the effect of an image of a pair of eyes on contributions to an honesty box used to collect money for drinks in a university coffee room. People paid nearly three times as much for their drinks when eyes were displayed rather than a control image.
posted by knapah at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ctrl-F "reservations" = no hits. In my workplace if you want free food for a lunch (vs hedging your bets on the leftovers after) you sign up to go to a thing in advance, and then often you sign in (and sometimes get a nametag if it's a big/outside vendor event) before you get your lunch.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:56 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Send an email in advance of each meeting asking people to RSVP so you can get a count for food. You may not need a count, but this presents the idea that food is planned out, limited and not up for grabs.

Reinforce that food will be just for attendees, 1 serving per person, and say where leftovers will be found, if there are any. Thank everyone for their part in making sure food is available for the people who take part in the meeting.
posted by ramenopres at 5:59 PM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I agree with the CEO email, above - this is a work culture issue rather than a food issue, and someone needs to lay down the law that this is unacceptable.

As a stopgap solution, you could buy a set of those heavy cloche covers to cover all the food, and only lift the covers at the appropriate time once the meeting has started.
posted by Mchelly at 9:27 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Put out lunch towards the end, or mid-meeting, inside the room once the doors have been closed. The first couple times, smile and lie to any early freeloaders that "it's late today, sorry!"

As for how to cope with people in the meeting who take seconds - how are you taking a headcount of whoever will be there? Round that headcount up a little bit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:07 AM on May 3, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your input! Lots of good suggestions here.

Ultimately I've discussed this with the admin that is currently dealing with this frustrating situation. I think she's going to have an email sent. Part of the issue is that these lunches are pretty regular (3-4 a week; we're pretty prominent in our field and people want our business badly). As such, they're not very "special" for attendees and they kinda blur together. I think making a point of engaging them when they enter the room will help, etc.

Thanks again everyone!
posted by teabag at 6:11 AM on May 3, 2017

Lyn Never is correct. I believe the lack of food theft at my employer (a huge company) is because we have a standard, socially-accepted procedure for getting extra food out to staff (leftovers go to the closest break room to the meeting room). A company without this practice needs an authoritative email as a"reset" to re-establish expectations.
posted by capricorn at 1:19 PM on May 3, 2017

I would put out a sign that says "lunch is for meeting attendees only".

They do this at my (academic) workplace, which has a larger than average number of people with limited social skills and either no boss or a boss who would not be enthusiastic about enforcing changes to free-food culture. I think the usual language is "lunch (for meeting participants)" or similar. It works really well, and I've never heard anyone complain.

Subtlety is wasted on people who would do this. Everyone else will be surprised the sign is necessary, but they won't be offended that you've posted it.

The one jerk who will ignore the sign isn't taking actually enough food to make it worth the effort to change his behavior.
posted by eotvos at 7:59 AM on May 6, 2017