Hopefully this article isn’t as banal as the title suggests. “I like food” is what I say when someone in the office asks me to join them for lunch (usually).

Why?

Because I like my teammates? Sure.

Because I’m hungry? Usually.

Because I like food? Also true.

Because want to enhance my relationship with my coworkers and build camaraderie among the group? Getting warmer but not quite. The familiarity that comes from knowing someone outside of work does tend to humanize them and help with relationships and camaraderie (and all those touchy-feely things we engineers aren’t supposed to care about because we’rerobotswhoonlyknowhowtowritecodeanddrinkmountaindewandurinateinemptybiggulps).

In my experience, the real benefit is in improvements to communication and cohesiveness. It’s in the ability we gain to understand each other as people, to know our strengths and weaknesses, to use shorthand in communication, to avoid causing or taking offense, and to just be more effective working together. Whenever possible, I like to participate in non-work activities with my brothers-and-sisters-in-code (and sometimes with others at the company as well) because it makes us more effective. Good companies/managers understand this concept and go out of their way to engage teams in “teambuilding”. This can be a dirty word in the wrong environment. Don’t work in that environment!

So unless I have an important errand to run or previous plans, invite me to lunch. I like food.