Reviewed: Lunch Meetings

As an intern I am not afforded many opportunities to go to meetings. I am even less likely to be invited to meetings with a meal included. Happily today was rare occassion wherein my presence was requested, nay REQUIRED, at a lunch meeting. To be perfectly honest, the meeting was expressly designed to address the concerns of interns in the publicity department, so the circumstances were a little unusual. But the moral of the story is, I got free lunch. Which really makes me wonder about that recent New York Time article about how annoying it is to meet with people over a meal. I know the article mostly described breakfast, but it seems like a particularly upper-class position to take to me. A person in my economic position pretty much always benefits from a lunch meeting:

1) The lunch is paid for by some larger corporate entity which saves you money.
2) You are "working" during lunch and therefore logging hours, but still

3) getting to spend a good deal of time outside of the office in the middle of the day while the sun is still shining. And let's face it, the sun is not shining nearly enough these days.

4) It promotes a sort of conviviality so often missing normal office interactions. For example, maybe you hadn't seen your co-workers purse before and now you know that her mother is a handbag salesperson!

A person disinterested in these obvious benefits is most likely:

1) Unconcerned about the cost of lunch due to a high salary.

2) Unconcerned about how hard it seems she/he is working because her/his job is already secure.

3) Job security allows this person to take midday strolls or yoga classes or coffee breaks.

4) Heartless and uninterested in others (maybe a reach).

But screw the richies. I say lunch meetings are great. And they allowed me to have a delicious curry chicken sandwhich and and fluffy maccaroon rather than cold leftover kale (which I'll eat tomorrow, but still).

Lunch Meeting grade: A