Will Meet for Food

Personally, I don't mind meetings that involve food. Actually, I kind of like them. If I'm bored, I can at least comfort myself with the idea the business is paying for the food, and if I'm intrigued or engaged or both - well, it's nice to feel intrigued and engaged when I'm doing something else I like, which is eat.

But Lisa Belkin, in today's New York Times, points out that business meals have their limits - or at least they should:

But I write about life-work balance, and it feels a little contradictory to conduct an interview, or attend a conference, or give a speech, when everyone involved had to sacrifice sleep to attend.

I have similar qualms about working dinners. After a long day of work, why follow it up with more work? True, there is good food, and probably wine, and it beats coal mining. But if you have to be there because the client and boss expect it, or if you would rather be playing “airplane flies in the hangar” with your toddler, then it is work disguised as socializing.

Don’t even get me started on weekends and holidays. I was once invited to a conference of pediatricians over Mother’s Day. Pediatricians! Cannibalizing Mother’s Day!

Good points all. Her main thought is that nowadays work has crept into times usually reserved as personal - for having breakfast with your kids, say, or unwinding with your husband or wife after a day at the office.

Belkin advises girding yourself to say no to people when they want to "pick your brain" over a meal - something I've found is easier said than done and, depending on your job or your commitment to networking - can be counterproductive. But certainly, she makes a good argument for being selective in who you go out with.

Oh Joy! Breakfast With the Boss [NY Times]