Exploring Lunch Options

I went to lunch today with a few coworkers.  I have to admit, I'm generally not a big adventurer when it comes to trying new places.   It is especially bad that there is a food court underneath my building because I'm generally pretty lazy when it comes to leaving the building for lunch.

Today, my coworkers were headed over to a different building, so I decided to tag along.  It was a bright and sunny California day so I figured it was a good time to get out of the building.  I also feel a little guilty about not being more adventurous because I work in Downtown L.A. where there are a lot of options around.

We ended up going to the cafeteria of another building.  It was odd.  First off, we had to pass through a security gate of the building.  It is one of those systems where you have to have a keycard to pass through the turnstile.  The thing was, we don't work in the building, however the security guard let all eight of us pass through.  We just had to say we were going to the cafeteria.  What's the point of that?  Why have a security turnstile if you are just going to let everyone through anyway?

It made me think a little bit about Microsoft.  Microsoft has cafeterias all over the Redmond campus.  There is nothing stopping outsiders from coming in and eating at the cafeterias other than needing a keycard to enter the building.  However, this is easily overcome by just waiting for someone else to enter the building as most people won't stop someone from following them in.  The thing is, I know for a fact that there are lots of conversations going around in the lunch area which probably shouldn't be heard by non-MS employees.  So I wonder, do non-Microsoft employees eat in the cafeterias?  If so, I wonder how often they overhear something they shouldn't.