Its probably an inane question, and not many of you may be able to respond to it with any degree of specificity, cz techies typically work weird hours, but reading outlaw’s comment in another thread, I just wanted to share it.
Do you guys eat dinner at work?
If you think about it, the answer “well, if we are working late, we’ll eat dinner… why ask?”
The thing is, unless I am planning to put an all-nighter at work (the last of which I think I did in probably '98), I never eat dinner at work. I don’t consider my work place is a restaurant. I’d rather go home and eat late than eat at work. And its not that I don’t like my staff and don’t wanna eat with them (we eat lunch together all the time), but its just that dinner time is something to be spent with my family, and even if I am late some day and the kids have already eaten and gone to sleep, I have always adhere to this rule as a matter of principle.
Ofcourse it helps that the kind of work I do, I can just take my laptop and work from anywhere, even my home, but still I think to have this line-in-the-sand and to keep dinner as the cut-off helps maintain some sanity in work-life balance.
I also feel dinner should be had at home. The only time I stayed late for dinner was when I lived alone and they had iftari at my work. That was nice. Other than that, I think home is best, even if youre gonna be a little late. smile
Faisal I think the answer also depends on been single or having a family. If you are married and especially if the other spouse or sibling/parent is making dinner for you then it almost implies eating at home rather then at work.
faisal yaar,the answer to your question is, 'almost never'. But, it's not bad if you look at it. I think working odd and long hours has its price. Eating at home is never a big concern, but what you eat does become important when you have to put your ass down for a long period of time. I used to eat anything, but then, I felt my waist size getting larger, so I became quite conscious. Now, I avoid fatty food as much as possible even for dinners, and make sure that wherever I eat, I at least keep up with some form of workout.,
Outlaw, to answer to your question I would refer you to the point above. It depends if a person is single or has a family. If one does not have a family at home, they can eat dinner whereever they want.. be it work or be it alone at home watching television.
However, once a person has a family at home, it becomes important to maintain some kind of work-life balance and for me that line in the sand is dinner time.
On the other hand, I know some people, who work for the government and for them it is unthinkable to stay a minute after 5:30 pm. They say they are not paid to work more than 8 hours a day. For those of us, who are in non-government performance-based jobs, and especially those where the success and timely completion of projects rely on our input, the issue is not so cut-and-dried. Its possible people can just flow in the work load and keep on working long hours, which may result in a total imbalance in our work life and personal life. At somepoint and some place we all have to make a decision about our priorities and how we allocate our time.
well, definitely balance is extremely important. And that's one of the questions I ask sometime, what I if were indeed married, what would happen then...i will definitely have to make major adjustments. I think one's responsibilities define flexibilities in hours worked. Clocking-in for the sake of time paid will be no fun, that's why, I think I could never work for government or any place where your contributions may not make a huge difference.
As you have mentioned yourself, often at times, we seek and define our personal success as to how well the company is performing. I believe that's a great stride, and yeah, it does push me even harder more than anything. But sooner than later I will have to make adjustments definitely, and perhaps, that will be the time to reap some of the rewards that I am working for rightnow..
only if m out station n chicken tikka pizza is da menu
aktually ma dad made a point earlier k no matter where v stay all day, v r suppose 2 get2gather @ home 4 dinner so it’s now in our routine; all da family memberz get2gather @ dinner n hv chit chat abt wat hv been dun durin da day
n waisay bhi who wanna miss mum’s cooked food :love:
not just Government employees but contractors who're paid by the hour ..if they don't leave by 5:00 their managers start circling their workstations making sure it's work that's keeping them longer and nothing else..
if its just me, i will go home, have dinner relax and then start again to work till late night, at times you have a team, and work of many ppl is inter-dependent then it is a case where i stay in late, It does not happen all the time but there are weeks that I have not eaten at home because of what needed to get done.
so it’s now in our routine; all da family memberz get2gather @ dinner n hv chit chat abt wat hv been dun durin da day 
