My good friend came to drop off some things for me at my office today. While I thought she would just wait for me downstairs, I realized she actually came up to our floor and was waiting for me in our waiting area near the front desk. She even surprised me with dried flowers (which should last pretty much forever until they’ve collected enough dust and cob webs). She is the most thoughtful friend I have — surprising me at work with flowers in hand!

I gave her a tour of my office, introduced her to a few colleagues, and of course, walked her around our kitchen, complete with endless snacks, healthy and unhealthy, kombucha, cold brew, beer, and even red wine on tap. She took a good number of snacks and packed them away in her bag (I mean, why else did she want to come up, right?).

She said she imagined my office would be something like this given what she’d seen and heard of other tech companies — she just didn’t realize we’d have things like our bottled tea selection, packaged boiled eggs (??), or Muscle Milk (which, we found out today actually has no real milk, just “milk proteins” — whatever that means, and no real sugar (they use fake sugars!). “So this is what it’s like to work in tech, huh? You guys just get tons of free shit and gain weight over this!” she exclaimed.

Yeah, that’s kind of true. A number of colleagues have told me that within six months of joining our company, they find that their waist lines get bigger or their clothes in general just start feeling tighter. Even when you think you are ordering healthy foods for lunch with our lunch stipend, too much of a healthy thing ends up still being… well, too much, and too much food makes you gain weight. We’re definitely very lucky with our food and perks here, and it was interesting and amusing at the same time to see my friend marvel over our office, our food, and all the things I just find “normal” and take for granted every day. It was a novelty for her, and I could tell she really enjoyed being there and did not want to leave.