Will Work For Food
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For anyone in a position senior enough to have a lot of underlings, don't forget the benefits of feeding them. As I recently experienced, buying a lot of pizzas for everyone works surprisingly well in getting the morale of the troop going.
One Friday not too long ago it was time for one of our very senior guys to return to his home country, so his PA let everyone (about 600 people) know they should scrap all lunch plans since pizzas had been ordered.
From noon onwards and for the biggest part of 90 minutes Domino delivered the goods in different varieties. Suddenly, with a slice of pizza in hand, something surprising happened.
People started talking to their co-workers and realised for the duration of a piece of Mighty Meat you can actually speak to somebody down the desk rather than IB-ing them. Of course, since we are in the UK, betting is never far off, so immediately markets were being made on the total number of pizzas ordered.
This all struck me as being in stark contrast from a previous job where once a week there was a (mandatory) meeting which regularly included pizza and beer. However, nobody would claim the pizza to be a morale booster. Instead it was considered a sweetener to be able to sit through a meeting widely considered a waste of time (which often lasted until 10 p.m.).
When everybody thinks something is pointless, even a Cheesy Crust does not save the day.
So, the takeaway is: To make it work, do not turn feeding your folks into a habit. Surprise them pleasantly. Pizza is a dish best served hot and in large numbers.
And by the way, it turned out this number was 300.
From noon onwards and for the biggest part of 90 minutes Domino delivered the goods in different varieties. Suddenly, with a slice of pizza in hand, something surprising happened.
People started talking to their co-workers and realised for the duration of a piece of Mighty Meat you can actually speak to somebody down the desk rather than IB-ing them. Of course, since we are in the UK, betting is never far off, so immediately markets were being made on the total number of pizzas ordered.
This all struck me as being in stark contrast from a previous job where once a week there was a (mandatory) meeting which regularly included pizza and beer. However, nobody would claim the pizza to be a morale booster. Instead it was considered a sweetener to be able to sit through a meeting widely considered a waste of time (which often lasted until 10 p.m.).
When everybody thinks something is pointless, even a Cheesy Crust does not save the day.
So, the takeaway is: To make it work, do not turn feeding your folks into a habit. Surprise them pleasantly. Pizza is a dish best served hot and in large numbers.
And by the way, it turned out this number was 300.
Here Is The Writer : Billy No Box
Billy No Box has worked in the city for six years, and currently works in Derivatives for a North American bank. He enjoys playing golf, reading books by Umberto Eco, singing "Copacabana" in the shower and at karaoke bars, and occasionally updating his blog about London and everything else.
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