It’s funny how something as small as lunch can draw a line in the sand between two jobs.
After a month of interviews and applications, I started a new position at a new company two weeks ago. On paper alone it looked like the best opportunity I’ve been offered since I graduated three years ago, and certainly since I’ve come to New York: salary and benefits, aka the Holy Grail.
(Health insurance never really bothered me until this past summer when a couple of tests at the doc’s cost me almost $2000. It wasn’t available to me at my job at the time and sadly my wages didn’t allow for yet another monthly expense. And I figured I didn’t really need it and could get by on over-the-counter meds if I happened to get sick. How wrong I was… But that’s beside the point.)
Within hours of being shown to my new desk, this job had trumped everything that came before, and while a brand new iMac sweetened the already-sweet deal, this isn’t based on money alone: the publishers, advertising execs, and various editors all came over and introduced themselves, actually taking the time to ask me about myself and explain their positions as opposed to the limp handshake and fake smile I was used to. On day two, my new bosses took me out to lunch at Gemma’s. Less than a week later the owner stopped by and treated the whole office to lunch at Peels.
This might seem like a tiny, insignificant thing but the last boss to buy me anything more than a coffee was Mika, from my first internship in the city, who brought her other intern and I to Chinatown for dumplings one day.
(I’ve been here since Feb ’09 and have interned/worked at three magazines since Mika. You do the math.)
Obviously I don’t expect everyone to feed their interns (Mika ran her t-shirt business from home) or employees but when you work closely with someone for a long time, I think it’s nice to show your appreciation for all that they do, be it coffee or a meal. It’s such a small gesture yet can mean so much.
