The One With the Picky (Ungrateful) Eaters

I work in the training department, and it's basically my job to keep track of the training people do so they are properly trained to do their jobs. I'm pretty sure I've told you this already. A part of being in the training area is that I coordinate the New Employee Orientation days, which includes getting together training materials and ordering lunch. I think I've referenced this before. . .all the pizza?

So, the lady who's here giving the training came up to my desk and said, "They want to know if Jersey Mike's delivers, if they can have sandwiches instead of pizza, because they were like, 'Pizza two days in a row?'"

I was. . .floored. I'm fairly certain that if someone offered to buy me lunch, anywhere, I'd be like, "Sure, great. Thank you!" If it were something I didn't like/didn't eat, then I'd say, "Oh, wow. That's nice of you, but I'm going to be having ______ for lunch." Maybe it's my Southern upbringing, I don't know. But that just seems awfully, awfully rude.

So I said (and, I wasn't actually sure this was true. But it sounded correct.) "I don't think they do delivery. . .I think they just do catering, and it's like a $50 minimum order." The lady looked startled and said, "Oh! OK. That's out."

(Note: I just checked their Web site, and it does not have a minimum order, but it also asks for 24 hours' notice. And I have a feeling they'd be like. . .3 lunches? That's it?")

She comes back and gives me what the people want: a large pizza, 1/2 ground beef, onions, and green peppers and 1/2 ground beef and pineapple. I say, "You know. . .usually we just offer them pepperoni and cheese." She laughed and said that since there were so few people, she decided to be accommodating. (She is, clearly, a lot nicer than I am.)

Then she told me that one of the ladies had said, "Well, at my OLD job, they gave us something different every day!"

I told the lady that it's like the one annoying new kid in high school that, every other word out of their mouth was, "Well, at my OLD school. . ." [I knew one of those. She was in the band and was convinced she was God's gift to clarinet performance. She sat primly in the first chair position, glaring at anyone else who dared sit in HER CHAIR, until the actual chair auditions when she was placed. . .6th. Out of 7. I feel like the fact that the band director always gave her first THIRD part (sorry for the original typo. . .), regardless of where she sat, should have been her first clue. Then she switched to bass clarinet, where she was 1st chair, by default, because she was the only bass clarinet player. Who was it that got the first chair spot? Oh yeah. . .that was me. :0) ]

Anyway, after I made that comparison, she laughed and said, "Yeah, and you want to say to them, 'Then go back to your old school!'"

So I knew she understood.

But seriously?

It's kind of like last week. My company has been working the people here a lot. Much overtime. . .like, 20-hour days. So they were buying some of the people lunch. Pizza, obviously.

One of the girls called up to my desk and was like, "Sarah. . .no one else wants to ask you this, so they made me do it. Would you go ask (the head boss) if, instead of pizza, they could just buy us a bucket of chicken? No fixings. . .and a loaf of bread?"

I laughed (you have to laugh), but went and asked. I don't actually know how that ended, because the head boss guy called down to where the woman had called me from to deal with it himself.

But honestly.