Mfoniso Akpan

The first reply came from a woman in accounting. "I'm free! 12:30?" Then a guy from the warehouse. Then a regional director. Then someone from legal. Hundreds of people had replied to everyone, and our email server slowed down so much that IT sent out a notice titled "Please stop." At 11:52 AM, a reply came in from the CEO. "I'm in. 12:30, main lobby. Lunch is on me." At 12:25, I went down to the lobby, still terrified. There were already about 300 people standing there. By 12:30, there were over 400. Security had to open the doors to the parking lot. The CEO walked out, looked at the crowd, looked at me, and asked, "Are you the new hire?" I said, "Yes. Sorry." He said, "Don't be. Where do you want to eat?" We ended up ordering food from three trucks for all 400 people. The CEO paid $6,800 on his card and told me later it was the best money he'd spent that year. Now it happens every Friday. It's officially called "New Hire Lunch," and every new employee gets to eat with the whole company. It has a calendar invite and a budget. HR says it's the reason our turnover dropped. Last week a new guy sent his own email to everyone, on purpose this time. He got 600 replies.