I'm looking at how we're doing things at our workplace and this subject comes up regularly among my employees and I thought,
why not get some unbiased insight on a message board with people that actually have jobs
So here's the deal at my company- Drinks, tea, crisps, fruit, cookies, sweets, coffee etc. are free (provided by our company)
- Each employee is paid an additional €50 a month for 'lunch expenses' on a full time basis (so if you work 4 days a week you get 80% of that)
- They can use this money themselves to buy lunch or deposit it into the shared lunch account (at this point, all do but that might change)
About 2 or 3 times a week (depending on how much we need) someone picks up groceries and hits the bakery (usually me).
A shared supply of food is more ecological and of course cheaper than buying everything yourself.
Employees can just put in requests for lunch and I will pick it up for them, granted that it's not to hard to find or overly expensive or ends up in the bin weekly
We have supplies like a grill, microwave, juicer machine, cheese guillotine, refrigerator, freezer etc. so people can prepare their own food.
However, there are some 'ifs' and 'buts' among the employees. For example, some people don't eat 'expensive' while others do.
We have a few guys who just eat bread, cheese and ketchup while some girls prefer vegan slices with lettuce and what have you.
Of course the basic foods are cheaper than the bio power food or vegan stuff so they don't feel they should pay the same for lunch.
Some of the girls bring their own food from time to time (left-over salads or other more exotic veggie things I couldn't find in the supermarket).
So they also think they should get a discount on the monthly cost even though they are on average the most expensive eaters.
I sorta try to remedy this unbalance by ordering protein bars for the dudes who are lifting from time to time or simply by ordering more beer and other alcoholic drinks in general.
Another perk is (and people in tech(artists/developers) in general are lazy) that I pick up the stuff and they don't have to go out and buy their own lunch supplies.
Yet if people drop from the collective account and buy their own lunch the shared pool becomes much smaller and lunches less luxurious (which of course has the downside of more people opting out).
But for some it seems enticing to just pick up that €50 extra each month and go broke for lunch.
New tax regulations do not allow us to pay for all of our employees lunches like we used to because we end up going over the limit of tax-exempt employee expenses.
So how are you guys handling your lunches. Sharing expenses with co-workers, buying it yourself or company provided?
What are your thoughts on a shared account for lunch expenses?
