Do y'all think it's routine to take a new employee out for lunch the first day? I thought it was, but perhaps I am mistaken.

If not the first day, at least the first week, usually, depending on what's going on. There's usually a lunch, somehow.

I don't think I've ever been taken out to lunch.

Really Plei? Huh. At both of my previous companies, when we had a new person, the team would go out to lunch on their first day--partly as a "we know you didn't bring your lunch on the first day, and don't know anyone, and now you can meet us not standing in a cube" sorta thing. Depending on the company and the time, it might be "whole 20 person department" or "four people you'll be working on a project with" and might range from "pretty darn nice restaurant" to "random Thai place down the street", but...

I was pretty surprised when the director was like "Oh, did you bring your lunch? Let's go grab something" and drove me to a deli where we each bought our lunch, snarfed it in about 15 minutes, and drove back. Sigh.

At my sister's company if you take a new person out to lunch you can comp the entire meal. I think it's for the first week but it might be longer.

granola

The Heroes WnP is on East Coast time so I should stay out of there until I've watched this week's episode, right?

then they asked if I would mind hanging around on pending until they got the confirm from the other someone that they would take the job

I'm pretty sure I would have laughed at them.

Well, part of it is that I started contracting after college, and both of my non-contract gigs started as contract slots. So by the time I was Velveteen Employee, I already knew everyone.

Frankly, I'm still shocked by things like paid time off.

Velveteen Employee

love this!

paid time off.

Yeah right, and Unicorns really exist.

I was taken out to lunch for one of three jobs. And at the one where I was, it became less routine as time passed. So I've never thought of it as traditional.