the cafeteria

I am working with a Fortune 500 company in California. The building where I work, which is corporate headquarters, has an interesting dynamic going on in the cafeteria.

There are 8 different food stations in the cafe. I have only eaten at the salad bar, but there is Japanese food, Mexican food, and some other stuff. My group that I work with consists of mostly Indians (dot not feather). I was first invited to sit with them two days after I started working with them.

You can tell a lot about the different cultures at the company. As you walk from the cash registers you will see two really long tables, laid out military style, and that's where the Chinese engineers sit. The room smells like a Chinese restaurant. It sounds like everyone is bickering.

To the right of those table is a separate room with round tables. That's where the Americans sit. The room is well lit but not by natural sunlight. Everyone sits in groups of four around their round tables. The room doesn't have an overwhelming smell, and it is the quietest of the cafeteria rooms.

To the left of the Chinese tables is another room. It has only natural sunlight, and can be pretty hot at noon under the California sun. This is where the Indians sit. All of the tables are four tops but, unlike those in the American room, the tables are square and can be reconfigured to suit the purposes of the engineers. To walk through this room is like walking through a market, where you have to take a non-straight line to get to where you are going. This room is next to the microwaves and everything smells like curry. Most of the Indians don't buy food at the cafe because they consider it unclean. They generally will buy a drink and take handfuls of wet naps, and otherwise don't do business there.

The Indians definitely have the best set up in the cafe. I love being able to set up a lunch meeting for 8 people or 20 people just by cramming tables together. I love the smell of curry. The room overlooks a garden and it isn't uncommon to get there and find some of my work colleagues with their feet out the window sticking into the well manicured bushes. As soon as I get my lunch I wind my way through the tables and say hi to at least 50 people before arriving at my destination. At the end of a meal there is a distribution of the wet naps. It's some kind of sign of friendship and respect. I knew my customer liked me when he offered me a wet nap from his tray.

And Fridays we all steal a fortune cookie and go around the tables reading our fortunes. The Indians take it very seriously. The other week the Indian to my right and my left had the same fortune. This was treated as a situation worth analyzing. the fortune was "you have an amazing personality".