Why we take Lunch together?? “Our best thoughts come from others.”

JEN staffs in Islamabad spent most of our time in office and it is very important to have social gathering beside of work to get realize that we are not machine but human being. This realization contributes more creativity to work as balance is maintained. This is an excellent opportunity to know about diverse cultures as well as diverse methods of getting work done, because most of the colleagues in offices are from diverse cultures and regions.
But in the other hand, we can say that this is a good chance to share diverse cultures and thoughts. In this way the colleagues shares ideas with their team and it’s an opportunity to know the team members more closely.
Let me share some of my experiences with having lunch together with our respectable colleagues;


The importance of having lunch time together with my co-workers is not negotiable, to me. It is probably very common for people to eat lunch with colleagues, but sometimes we forget this importance. It is especially very important when we are working in a different work culture. In our office we are 7 colleagues in total coming from different area within the country and outside of country. The know how idea is very limited during working hours we know each other only up to work related issues, which sometime cause frustration if we don’t have the opportunity to know one personally. Lunch time is an excellent opportunity for us to share our personal issues and happy movements we feel during work as well during personal lives. Similarly we take these opportunities to challenge because everybody shares their own experiences, how they tackle their own issues. Personal sharing is of utmost importance to know each other and to implement the experiences in work places as well as personal lives. We all sit together which includes superiors and subordinates, which is a good tie for the superiors to know their subordinates issues and level of completing tasks and their personal life, similarly for subordinates, they easily can understand their superiors mentality and can grab it in work. This time make us fresh in the mid of day same as like in the morning freshness,



To find that free time is hard for anyone and it may be hard for people who have kids/family to come out for any other parties we throw to talk and spend time. People do not just function based on rules; we may need a favor outside of rule book at work or outside work. The only way a colleague will be willing to help is if he or she can trust you. TRUST only develops by constant relationship building and conversation on a personal level other than work related stuff.  Bottom line, we should use our lunch time (if you can) to build that relationship. I have so many good friends even today. In fact, I got my good image just because of the trust my colleague had in me and it was built by our lunch conversations.

It is very important we find some common ground to have a friendly conversation that is not related to work. Depending on the time of year, most of them follow some sports. It can be Cricket for us and Boxing for Japanese. We discuss about games within the country and outside of country, it is a good time to discuss about families unless we really don’t know each other we cannot enter to someone’s personal space directly. We respect each other views and hear only what colleagues wants to share, strictly avoid what colleagues don’t want to discuss about. We usually share ideas about sports, culture, shopping dresses, cooking, likes (dislikes) & languages and sometime Religious. Politics is debating subject, so often we discuss about it. Our topics are also on stock market sometimes, we just need to pick a common ground and talk that is interesting for all of us.

The summery of all this discussion is we all colleagues are just like friends during lunch time and it’s a good opportunity to know each other professionally as well. Your work place will be lighter if you work with friends rather than just colleagues. I had & I have very good time at my work because we all are good friends beside of good colleagues.
GOD blesses all of us!

“If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow & which will not, speak then unto people.”

Regards,
Humaira Wahab