FOWC with Fandango — Pizza

I used to work in high tech. I usually worked for very small companies who were funded by bigger corporations. The number of people working in these companies ranged from half a dozen to maybe 20. I also worked for a couple of big corporate organizations too, but it wasn’t a good fit for me. Other than how often these small companies went broke, they were great places to work. The people I worked with were fun, weird and exciting and the work we were doing was new. We always thought we were going to change the world. Maybe we did.

From a financial viewpoint, these companies weren’t necessarily my best option. Although they usually offered good medical benefits, they never had pension plans or paid for overtime. Nor could they pay the higher salaries larger companies offered. Everybody worked overtime and when we had a hard deadline — deliver or die — we worked until it was ready to fly. Sometimes it was nearly dawn when I drove home.

You can’t eat pizza without
a pizza cutter, right?

They day we rejected pizza, thirteen of us were working at a small high tech company developing pointers to replace tables in databases. Whenever we — the employees — were facing a hard deadline and needed to get the product finished and delivered and there was no time to waste, the bosses fed us.

Pizza. It was always pizza.

Why pizza? A big pie could feed at least three people and even more importantly, pizza places delivered. With a hard deadline breathing down our necks, no one had time to go out for food. Unfed workers didn’t produce their best work, so pizza it was.

Pizza was a great leveler. In that one office of 13 people, two were Russian, one was Indian, another was Pakistani and one came from Holland. Strangest of all, one of our bosses was from Minneapolis, definitely the oddest possible origin. Pizza brought us together. There’s something about eating an Italian-American food that requires no silverware or dishes and is eaten with fingers which helps people relate. And didn’t everyone like pizza?

Sanji from India, was the first to make the big announcement. “I do not want pizza,” she said. “I am tired of pizza. Can we get something else? Chinese food? Sandwiches? Anything else? I’d rather be hungry than eat another slice of pizza.”

On the spot, we agreed. We had many deadlines and there was always pizza. It was the ubiquitous food of the American high tech worker. I didn’t care much but I was ready to stand with my colleagues for a shot at sandwiches or Chinese. Even for free, we agreed to not work for pizza.

We got sandwiches from the same place that made our pizza, but it was a one-shot rebellion. After that, it was back to pizza. At least we succeeded in our one-day rebellion.

Categories: #Food, #FOWC, #Work, Anecdote, Fandango's One Word Challenge

Tags: #FOWC, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Pizza, Working for pizza