Terrible employer-sponsored meal

[Anonymous 1]

Employees who try to spite other employees and talk badly about them for stupid reasons always cause trouble at the most inopportune times.

If it's affecting the moral of the office, it should be looked into. What do you mean at the most inopportune times?

The budget is affecting moral. This person tried to do something nice and is getting dragged for it. As soon as real problems come up, you realize they’re the ones drilling holes in the wood as you’re trying to sail the ship.

Keep reading for more information from the op.

[PoplarGrove]

You say something like "I really appreciated the effort she put into the lunch".

[Traci_Momof2]

It wasn't in her home. She is the person who has slashed our benefits so much that employees are considering leaving and this meal was to make up for that.

What benefits exactly did she take away? She was doing her job, she was brought in to find cost saving opportunities because obviously the company couldn’t afford to keep on as they were, and she’s trying to replace it with a more cost effective way to build team morale. The food might not be your taste, but she’s not the villain.

Damn near all of them. Retirement package, health insurance, gym membership, slashed the sick/vacation/personal/work from home days, office snacks and drinks, even cream for the coffee, and all annual employee events.

I disagree; she is totally a villain, she just isn't the only one. The company wasn't hurting for money. The boss just bought a brand new $80K truck and goes on expensive vacations now constantly. She's in his ear because he offered her a piece of the company. She's not just "trying to save the company money" she is trying to make money off of the back of the other employees.

Frankly, this is low wage worker mentality; that workers who were previously well taken care of should be happy for scraps and pennies.

This is business. You keep your employees happy, they are loyal and work hard for you. You start taking away all of the reasons why your company is great to work for, employees start leaving, turnover becomes high, quality of work suffers.

Damn. Even if it was great food I still wouldn't be happy and would feel like they were insulting my intelligence. Don't take away the shit that is most important to me and then think you can placate me with food. That's not going to work no matter how good the food is.

Of the things you listed, IMO some of them can go. Things like gym membership and annual events and even snacks and drinks. Most people expect to pay for their own of those things anyway. Take them away if the company needs to save some money.
But health insurance and retirement and paid days off??? f**k no! I'd be joining the ranks of people looking for a new job and looking fast. And I probably wouldn't even bother with giving notice once I found a new one. The theory being, if they don't care about me then why should I care about them?

[Anonymous 4]

I would just say “that’s really great that she made all of that for us, I really enjoyed it! I’d love to have more events like that where we can all rotate styles of food and try something new. Maybe we can do a vote for everyone to choose where we get food from next time, I think the staff would have a lot of fun giving suggestions.” It isn’t lying because it is all true, I do appreciate when someone cooks for me even if I don’t like the food and I do enjoy the staff bonding experience. While also opening the door for different food in the future and steering the event toward something everyone feels an input in. I recently had a staff event at a venue I don’t particularly like, but I did appreciate that the department was funding something for their staff and I told them so. Then I told them how much I’d love to do that more often and mix it up to explore different options that could include more staff, giving suggestions of options that were even more cost effective, and the upper leadership has taken a lot of those suggestions.

This is a lie, and saying one enjoyed it will encourage her to keep making her subpar meals in place of whatever they used to do.

[AZOldGal66]

"It was fine though myself, I couldn't eat it".

Nothing more needs to be said about a bbq that isn't cared for unless the goal is to get this person in trouble.

Otherwise, it's petty to include this in your list of complaints about the person.

[Olioxenfree]

I would just say “that’s really great that she made all of that for us, I really enjoyed it! I’d love to have more events like that where we can all rotate styles of food and try something new. Maybe we can do a vote for everyone to choose where we get food from next time, I think the staff would have a lot of fun giving suggestions.” It isn’t lying because it is all true, I do appreciate when someone cooks for me even if I don’t like the food and I do enjoy the staff bonding experience. While also opening the door for different food in the future and steering the event toward something everyone feels an input in. I recently had a staff event at a venue I don’t particularly like, but I did appreciate that the department was funding something for their staff and I told them so. Then I told them how much I’d love to do that more often and mix it up to explore different options that could include more staff, giving suggestions of options that were even more cost effective, and the upper leadership has taken a lot of those suggestions.

This is a lie, and saying one enjoyed it will encourage her to keep making her subpar meals in place of whatever they used to do.

It isn’t a lie. I enjoy when others take their time to cook for me and to get us all together, even if I don’t particularly care for the food.