The other day while shopping for groceries, I noticed a young couple (they were, maybe, 25 or so) pushing a cart down the cereal aisle. Balanced on top of the child seat (sans child) was a box of pizza, opened, from Pizza Hut, and the couple was chowing down as they shopped. It seemed like an odd place to have dinner (or lunch, since it was about 3:30 p.m.). Not that I care whether they’re eating while shopping or not, and they certainly weren’t bothering (much less even noticing) me. It’s just something I would never dream of doing.
During some of our employee meetings here in the office, some of the younger people show up with food (I’ve seen yogurt, soup, sandwiches, grapes and more — none of which is typically offered to anyone else), and they think nothing of eating during the meeting. It doesn’t affect what we accomplish, so I don’t have a problem with it, other than to note things have changed since I first hit the business world — we would have no more thought about eating in a meeting, or in a grocery store, than we would have considered showing up in shorts or flip-flops.
It’s nice that people aren’t stuffy and uptight these days — people other than me, I guess. Just a difference in lifestyle, in thought-process, in social networking, in whatever…
