An idea for Thanksgiving.

If they ever make a sequel to Office Space, they need to include something about the obligatory Thanksgiving meal. Every office I've worked in does some kind of Thanksgiving feast for the employees. Sometimes, the company pays (always nice). Sometimes it's potluck (the company usually supplies the bird). And sometimes they cater it and expect you to pay to participate (give me a break).

The set-up can be more or less annoying, but the real problem isn't how they arrange it. It's the fact of it. It's nice that they want to do something for the employees. It is, and I appreciate it. But these company Thanksgiving meals are always held within two weeks, and usually a mere week, of the real Thanksgiving. And they are *always* a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

For those of you not connecting the dots, that means that a week, sometimes only days, before I'm going to eat a full-on Thanksgiving meal with my family, on the actual holiday, I'm stuck eating that EXACT SAME FOOD, food you're only supposed to be diving into once a year, with my co-workers. And it's highly likely that much of it won't even be as good as what I'm going to get with my family.

At my current job, they're holding the annual office feast TWO DAYS before actual Thanksgiving! Who does that???

So, here's what I propose. From now on, when offices want to give their employees a little shout-out to celebrate Thanksgiving, which is admirable, make it a point to serve non-traditional food. Poll your employees. See what they want. Italian? Mexican? A foot-long from Subway? Whatevuh. Just don't force them to eat the same food they're going to eat with their families in a few days or risk being labeled as an unsocial non-team-player for not joining in the feast.

And if you'd like your employees to really appreciate you, have an open bar. That's something they probably wish they'd be having with their real family.