Question about eating meals at work

[Grey Fox]

And you want China to subsidize your debts? Employers there don't even let their employees leave the site!

[CountDeMoney]

I've discovered that, the higher up the food chain you are, pardon the pun, the more flexibility you have regarding lunch. 

Punch clock worker bee, it's 30 minutes in the break room with a brown bag and a crushed sandwich.
Supervision, it's at your desk with the door closed, so you can get some fucking peace and quiet away from the groundlings for a bit and cruise Languish.
Leadership, it's an hour and a half or so a few miles away with some buddies at the local rib joint or chain restaurant, with time to hit Best Buy or something on the way back to the office.

Ah, hierarchy.

[Ed Anger]

Mono just cried.

[Martim Silva]

I'm actually surprised... the general idea is that, since you have to work through the day, the company is forcing you to eat away from home. So they have to compensate the workers for it.

They work, like, 3 hours a day over there, and I'm sure their lunch siesta is about 3 hours long or something.  Meal allowance must be from the government.

The spaniards do the Siesta (two hours per day). We don't do that since the 60s.

Probably just setting us up for him to tell us how uncivilized and uncouth we all are since we don't do as his nation does. 

It's hardly my nation... Spain does it too, and they get paid on average twice the amount the portuguese to eat at restaurants.

These are our lowest amounts for 2012 (most people get more):

http://www.online24.pt/valor-do-subsidio-de-alimentacao-em-2012/

[Ed Anger]

I've discovered that, the higher up the food chain you are, pardon the pun, the more flexibility you have regarding lunch. 

Punch clock worker bee, it's 30 minutes in the break room with a brown bag and a crushed sandwich.
Supervision, it's at your desk with the door closed, so you can get some fucking peace and quiet away from the groundlings for a bit and cruise Languish.
Leadership, it's an hour and a half or so a few miles away with some buddies at the local rib joint or chain restaurant, with time to hit Best Buy or something on the way back to the office.

Ah, hierarchy.

I used to cruise the mall in summer to watch the jailbait. Grab a chicken sand which and hang near the. hot topic. Or the Gap/old navy. Whichever mood I was in.

[CountDeMoney]

I've discovered that, the higher up the food chain you are, pardon the pun, the more flexibility you have regarding lunch. 

Punch clock worker bee, it's 30 minutes in the break room with a brown bag and a crushed sandwich.
Supervision, it's at your desk with the door closed, so you can get some fucking peace and quiet away from the groundlings for a bit and cruise Languish.
Leadership, it's an hour and a half or so a few miles away with some buddies at the local rib joint or chain restaurant, with time to hit Best Buy or something on the way back to the office.

Ah, hierarchy.

I used to cruise the mall in summer to watch the jailbait. Grab a chicken sand which and hang near the. hot topic. Or the Gap/old navy. Whichever mood I was in.

I forgot one more:

Self-employed/unemployed, it's however long you want, in your bathrobe and underwear.

[merithyn]

It's hardly my nation... Spain does it too, and they get paid on average twice the amount the portuguese to eat at restaurants.

And look where that's gotten them.

The point is that your way isn't the standard for which all others should be measured. Your way is just that: your way. Quit trying to act as though all others are beneath you because they think - and act - differently. It's annoying and makes you look ignorant and provincial.

[Grey Fox]

All Yanks should heed that warning, especially to affairs that concern Education.

[Maximus]

Meal allowance?

Since all employees have to eat (at a restaurant), companies are forced by law to pay everybody a meal allowance ['subsídio de refeição', in portuguese] to cover the cost, or at least part of the cost, of a meal at a restaurant.

It is an extra added to the wage and not considered taxable income.

This is the law:

http://www.dgaep.gov.pt/stap/infoPage.cfm?objid=56233dbb-79d5-4613-bfcc-90d8a58b6ea4&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=580&width=520

translate with google, or something.

Called it.

[Zanza]

I'll forward this to Ms Merkel so she can abolish it. 

[Ed Anger]

I'll forward this to Ms Merkel so she can abolish it. 

I bet that does fire up your kraut blood a bit, right? 

[Martim Silva]

40 minutes of my clocked time at work is not counted against my contractual work time and meant for lunch.

The place I work has a "restaurant" that is subsidized by the company. That's where I eat my lunch most of the time. If I am in a hurry and need to meet a deadline, I might just grab a sandwich or so and eat it at my desk. Some colleagues always eat at their desks. I don't know if it is allowed per se, but it is certainly tolerated. Unless you spill something on your computer I guess.

How much of it is subsidized by the company?

I was kind of half-expecting the Americans to let their employers walk all over them, but your case is special, Zanza. After all, we are getting a lot of German money to allow our banks to lend to our companies, so that these companies can pay us to eat at restaurants.

It just seems... odd that you have to do that while effectively paying the Portuguese so that they can keep eating at restaurants for almost nothing (or for free, depending on the meal).

[Zanza]

No, I don't give a shit. Wages in Portugal are so low that having such a meal allowance is probably necessary.

By the way, I get a meal allowance as well when I am on business trips. 24 Euro per day in Germany, 36 Euro e.g. in Portugal or rural USA, 48 Euro in New York City or 72 Euro in Sweden. Often times our local legal entitites will invite you for lunch or dinner and breakfast is often included in the hotel and on the travel days you just eat stuff in the business lounge so it's a tax-free extra too.

[CountDeMoney]

Americans don't receive subsidies or allowances for lunch.  They deduct it.

[merithyn]

No, I don't give a shit. Wages in Portugal are so low that having such a meal allowance is probably necessary.

True. It's basically akin to welfare.