That free lunch your boss is offering might just be a way to get you back into the office

At Sendbird's headquarters, Fridays have turned into a culinary event, offering employees a complimentary lunch as an incentive to be present in the office. Yeji Yoon, the chief of staff, revealed that this initiative originated from the company's CFO, who introduced the tradition for his personal love of bahn mi sandwiches from a local Vietnamese restaurant. Although Fridays are not designated as mandatory in-office days, the company has mandated that employees who can work from the San Mateo location must be on-site on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Additional return-to-office policies are being implemented globally. Despite this, several teams, especially the finance department, opted to come in on Fridays for easier collaboration. Yoon noted, "Our CFO would start going around asking anyone else in the office, do you want a sandwich?" This sparked a casual yet consistent gathering that rapidly evolved into a beloved routine. To streamline lunch orders, a dedicated Slack channel was created, with employees submitting their bahn mi preferences via a Google Sheet by 11 a.m. This initiative has not just been about food; a performance marketing manager even began analyzing the order data, tracking trends like total orders over time and popular customization requests. Yoon summarized the findings, stating that "food is definitely a way to keep people or bring people in the office." Despite the growing appreciation for remote work highlighted by academics and working parents, Yoon argues that the practicality of such arrangements has diminished, particularly with the rapid advancements in AI technology. She explained that remote roles are most effective when there is minimal need for collaboration or real-time decision-making. "Now, especially with AI, everything is changing so quickly — from product to customer expectations — and there's a lot of collaboration that has to happen on the go," she added. Yoon expressed concern that the pace of work and product development slows significantly when employees operate remotely. While there are no current plans to mandate office attendance on Fridays, the allure of free bahn mi might just be the key to increasing in-person participation.