is it possible to ask my team to prepare work lunches? — Ask a question to the manager

A reader writes:

I have a question about work lunches. I manage a small team and I recently brainstormed some professional development ideas for the next year that the whole team could participate in. One option I suggested was a (company sponsored) lunch and learn where we observe work. webinar and debrief, invite an expert to speak on a relevant topic, or invite a team member to speak on a specific skill. This is a fairly common occurrence in many corporations, and I thought quarterly at most. One of my employees (new to the industry and been here for about a year) said, “I don’t want to lunch and learn. I get paid to work eight hours a day, so why should I work nine?” This really put me off. But I need a sanity check.

I don’t really want to work nine hours a day (or eight, or seven…). But we have a salary, and I think company-provided work lunches are quite common in this type of work. I’m not attached to this idea and will give it up if no one wants to do it; I just want to know if I got confused by being so annoyed by this response. This employee expressed a desire to take on more responsibility and be promoted, but I was not promoted for expressing similar opinions (and this is not a generational conflict – we are the same age). Do I need to address this issue, or is it just a common mentality that I need to get rid of as a manager?

It’s true that lunch and learn and other work lunches are very common; you won’t come up with a strange or outrageous idea.

His Also it’s true that they encroach on time that would otherwise belong to employees, and people aren’t wrong if they don’t like them for that reason. If your team doesn’t currently have a work lunch culture, add one to your team. is may upset some people (especially those who use lunch to relax and not be “on work”, or to run errands or personal calls, etc.).

Moreover, if watching work-related webinars or listening to experts speak serves the business needs you want people to prioritize, why should it happen during lunch instead of during normal work hours? Set aside actual work time for this if it’s important. And if it’s not important enough for that, perhaps expecting people to give up their lunch break isn’t important enough.

Again, I know this is the norm in some areas. But since it’s not currently the norm on your team, why add it if it’s not necessary?

It all said, “I get paid to work eight hours a day, so why should I work nine?” In many areas the paycheck isn’t working, and if you see other signs that your employee is bringing this mentality to work in a way that could cause problems, it’s worth paying attention to – if only to make it clearer what they can expect to your field.

But I would also be wary of thinking, “I didn’t get promoted by expressing these opinions”—because the culture is Change in things like this is good and we should welcome it. If you can point to specific reasons why mindset might be a problem in your field (for example, people sometimes have to respond to customer needs outside of business hours), you should do so. But if you’re just annoyed by this opinion on principle, challenge yourself and ask whether it’s actually wrong or just different from the way you’re used to thinking.

Note: I expect to see a lot of “Lunch and learn is an inappropriate encroachment; never do this” in the comments section. But they are very common in many areas, and it is naive to pretend that they are not. However, it appears that they are not currently the norm for your team, and there is no urgent need to change this.