In this day of remote work, what does your lunch look like?
A colleague of Mr. Magpie’s recently posited that it is poor etiquette to eat while on a Zoom call. He and I conferred and felt this was not a bad bright line rule (no one wants to watch someone else eat…), but that there are circumstances to consider that might lend themselves to more flexible principles. For example, is this a quick, recurring chat with a direct report or a high-stakes presentation you’re helming? Will you mainly be looking at shared screens? Is it an enormous all-hands where most screens will be turned off anyway? Etc. And what if you are in meetings all day — what then? I thought back to my days in an office and remembered many conversations and informal meetings held at the lunch table, or while picking around salads around a desk. Has the screen culture upended that working lunch concept? Is it more or less unpleasant to listen to someone munching on a screen than to sit a few paces away from them in a room? Do speakers need to be turned off?
What do you think?
More generally, what does your lunch look like on an average workday?
I have a cushioned set of working circumstances: I am self-employed, set my own schedule, and can push things around as I please. I do have phone calls a few times a week, and I am draconian about showing up for those calls (e.g., not pushing them around or rescheduling at the last minute), but I tend to cluster these between 1-3 in the afternoon, as I find myself most creatively productive in the morning hours, and then like to leave an hour window for lunch and unwind (a buffer!) between 12-1. Last year, I committed to “no at-the-desk lunches,” and the habit has stuck. I had been finding myself mindlessly inhaling my lunch around the keyboard, which I hated, especially given how thoughtful Mr. Magpie is about our meals, including lunch fare. We nearly always plan our lunches 1-3 days in advance! Sometimes this just means issuing a placeholder (“we’re planning to order in tomorrow – we’ll figure out what we want in the morning”), but more often than not, it looks like: “let’s thaw out soup on Tuesday, make a salad on Wednesday, have dinner leftovers Thursday,” which entails reheating, ingredient-fetching, and other prepwork. Mr. Magpie and I eat lunch together almost every single day, knees knocking at the kitchen counter. I’ll push the timing around to accommodate his meeting schedule, but we usually aim for noon. We put on music, we catch up, we tackle STPs (Shoop Talking Points), and then we clean the kitchen together and go our separate ways. It feels delightfully civilized — and also like a breath of fresh air after sitting in the stale for too long.
Every week’s lunches look a little different, but in the past week, we enjoyed: homemade tomato soup and a radish-lettuce salad tossed with creamy dill dressing, Pho Nom Nom’s banh mis (seen above), leftover Persian food from Joon’s out in Tyson’s (very, very good).
How about you? Spill!
xoxo
Your Nosy Magpie
Post-Scripts.
+This couscous salad makes an excellent lunch. It keeps well in the fridge. My mouth is watering thinking about it!
Shopping Break.
+Madewell has released a mesh flat — get the Khaite look for a fraction of the price, especially while the brand is running a 25% off promo! Also love these 90s straight jeans (esp in the white/ecru color) and this Khaite-inspired tote so many of you snapped up already. (The mini version is also really cute.)
+Gorgeous embroidered linen caftan. Also *love* the caftans from Asha. Either of these would be such pretty options for a maternity or newborn shoot. Or a family portrait on a beach!
+The new new for keeping little hands busy in car / restaurant / waiting room.
+These freezable snack pouches were the best gear purchase I made for my children this year. They actually keep the interior cold all day long, so you can pack cut fruit, yogurt pouches, cheese/salami without worrying it will spoil or get gross and slimy. They also have freezable lunchboxes but that might start to take up too much precious space in the freezer! I find two pouches fit nicely into one of the shelves on the door of our freezer. Several Magpie moms have also raved about the products from this brand for stowing/saving breast milk. Genius.
+Cute espadrille Mary Janes! Obsessed.
+One thing I missed in my Amazon Big Spring Sale roundup yesterday: these Sorbus bins. They are my absolute favorite for organization. In the medium, the perfect size for corralling oils / vinegars / baking ingredients / snack packs in a pantry, or shampoos / lotions / etc in a linen closet. It really is the perfect size – not too big that it’s unwieldy but not too small that it doesn’t fit what you need in there.
+A great midweight transitional cardigan to throw on over everything. Upgrade pick: Jenni Kayne.
+Speaking of Jenni Kayne — this under-$150 linen dress feels like something from Jenni Kayne: chic, artful, neutral weekend wear to live in.
+My children have been loving these dry erase chore charts. We’re honestly using them less for chore tracking and more to encourage them to be accountable for the little steps that need to be completed each day that we find ourselves constantly nudging them about — like finishing homework, wearing eye patch (my daughter has amblyopia and still wears a patch for an hour a day), laying out uniform. I find my daughter actually does these things with alacrity because she likes to check the box. We’ll see how long this lasts, but I’m encouraged.
+Just ordered these fun $14 shell earrings. They remind me in shape / style / chunkiness of the earrings from Aureum. You might remember I own and love these knots — almost always wearing them or my pearls during the week — and Aureum offered us 20% off sitewide with code JENS20.
+These indoor fans might be the most attractive fans I’ve ever seen. Gorgeous!
+Have been eyeing a Hunza G suit for my girl — I think she’d love the look/fit, and they are OSFA so you can get years of wear out of them, which is compelling, and drives the cost per wear down considerably. Also found these $14 Hunza G-inspired swimsuits at H&M — the lavender would be cute tucked into an Easter basket!
+Chic way to pack lunch, if you are still in an office setting!
+Speaking of H&M – this eyelet/lace shirt and skirt situation is insanely chic! I would probably wear the shirt over a white or nude tank with light wash denim.