Feeding the Office: The Culture of Commensality and Free Food in the Tech Industry

Abstract

Within the tech industry, free food has become so ubiquitous that it is nearly compulsory. Packed lunches have nearly disappeared as more and more companies provide free food at work with the stated objectives of increasing productivity, attracting and retaining employees and creating a sense of community through commensality. These carefully orchestrated programs, in some ways, are in place to reduce life’s encumbrances to the bare minimum for certain employees. Based on ethnographic fieldwork inside two companies that provide free food for employees, Eventbrite and Etsy, this research explores concepts of gifting, commensality and care. The aim of this research is to understand how these food programs are altering the relationship between employer and employee, how they work to support an agile, flexible type of workforce and also to understand the place of commensality in such workplaces as both exclusionary and inclusionary. Amongst other things, I found that despite the proposed nature of these programs they actually can’t change the fundamental dynamics of the post-Fordist office. Furthermore, by focusing on the social aspects of the workplace and the experiences of the employees, my thesis contributes to the ethnographic literature on the anthropology of work, food and advances a new set of ideas about commensality in the workplace.