The pros and cons of bringing your lunch to work - Food Files

Mar 27, 2024

Let’s not make a meal of it.

The office environment is not unlike the jungle. It’s an ecosystem abounding in biodiversity, with species both rich and rare.

There are the proud leaders, who rule over all with an iron paw and almighty roar. There are the clowns, who hoot and howl from the laptops, swinging from meme to meme. There’s the cool clique, which always travels in packs and which you should never, ever turn your back on. There are the lone wolves, who silently prowl the halls in hopes of escaping the 3:30pm cake party for Marjorie’s birthday. There are the gossips, who flock to the water fountain in search of juicy sustenance.

But when midday rolls around, any keen-eyed observer will notice two distinct species emerging. There are those who’ve carefully squirrelled away their food, packing it in plastic tubs to bring to work for lunch. And then there are those who take flight each lunch hour in pursuit of a tasty meal.

Many of you would be from that latter category. I am that rare creature – I bring my lunch to work. Every single day.

You can’t judge a book by its lunch box

Yes, yes. I can hear you groaning. But you needn’t worry – this isn’t going to be one of those articles where I bang on about how saintly I am, beating you over the head with a bunch of holier-than-thou judgy crap. You see, we lunch-bringers are subjected to a certain level of judgement ourselves.

“Oh, you’re so healthy!” people will cry as they watch me mix my sad tin of tuna through my sad salad in the office kitchen, entirely unaware that I had a wheel of cheese and a bottle of soave for dinner the night before.

“Oh, you’re so organised!” they’ll say, blissfully ignorant of the fact that I still haven’t got around to getting a driver’s licence (I’m 50) and have been known to use a paper towel as a plate because I can’t be bothered unloading the dishwasher.

“Such willpower,” they’ll say, as they tuck into their delicious container of fragrant takeaway Thai, irresistible wafts of garlic and lemongrass arising like winged temptresses – so close, yet so far out of reach…

You see, I don’t bring lunch every day because I’m some kind of super-wholesome Marie Kondo freak. I do it for the same reason that I endure the office instant coffee instead of a barista-made brew from the fancy cafe across the road – because it’s cheaper that way. How else am I going to pay for all those wheels of cheese?

But while bringing a packed lunch to work is potentially great for your bottom line, I can attest that it’s not great for much else. Let’s unpack the sad-salad details.

Bringing lunch to work is boring

Unless you’re some annoyingly perky TikTok influencer who lives for meal prep, you’re likely to find the task of preparing your week’s lunches to be an utterly tedious one. Especially if you’re like me, and make exactly the same thing every week. Mostly because I cannot be bothered to come up with anything new.

This, of course, means I’m eating the same thing every day. Which is about as tedious as the preparation was. Although it does have to be said, there is a certain level of satisfaction in seeing your week’s lunches – neatly stacked in their containers – all lined up in the fridge, ready to go. And if you ever find yourself standing in front of your fridge, admiring a bunch of salads, trust me, it’s all over for you, too.

Eating last night’s leftovers is depressing

There’s something vaguely dispiriting about that Tupperware tub of dried-up rice and congealed chicken curry that you so carefully set aside the night before to bring to work. Somehow, no matter how delicious it was yesterday, today it just seems kinda pathetic. And yet you must make your walk of shame to the office kitchen, where you must retrieve your sad little meal from the office fridge filled with other people’s equally pitiable attempts at nourishment, then wait your turn at that most wretched of all appliances – the office microwave. Ding! Luncheon is served, sucker.

Bringing lunch to work also brings TMI with it

Your colleagues already know too much about you. They know when your birthday is. They probably even know when your cat’s birthday is. So why should they also have to know about your Star Wars lunch box and your penchant for beetroot sandwiches? You’ve gotta draw a line somewhere.

All that planning ahead is exhausting

Don’t you already have enough to worry about? Yes. Yes, you do.

Buying lunch means actually leaving the office

Even if you just pop out to grab something and then eat it ‘aldesko’, buying lunch means leaving the office building. This means fresh air, sunshine and a little exercise. When you bring your own lunch, you don’t have any reason to leave your floor, let alone head outside. Of course, you could go out for a little stroll if you really wanted to, but we all know what modern office culture is like – you work until you die. Probably at your desk. While eating a tuna salad.