Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here . (It’s anonymous!)
Dear Good Job,
For a variety of reasons, food was scarce when I was growing up. Much of the time, food wasn’t available, or what was available wasn’t safe.
I developed a lot of strategies around this, and now that I’m an adult, in my 20s with my own job, bank account, and a level of stability, I’m feeling like the strategies I grew up with—like “eat as much as you can when there is food”—are not working for my changed situation.
In my career, there are semi-regular working meals, where between five to 30 people will have a meeting, and either the food is in the office and catered or we go out to a venue. There’s something like