"Unfiltered Information": Ancestry CEO Shares Why He Eats Lunch With Employees In Break Room

Howard Hochhauser, the CEO of the ancestry platform Ancestry, recently shared why he prefers to eat his meal in the office's eating area. Speaking to Fortune, he said that he regularly brings his lunch down to the office break room to eat alongside everyday staff, instead of dining with fellow high-ranking leaders. While talking to the publication, the CEO revealed that the practice of sharing meals is one of the best ways to get a real sense of what is happening across the company because it is quite difficult for the leaders to find honest information.

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The CEO further revealed that he learned this habit back in the late 1990s, while working in equity research at Bear Stearns, he watched the firm's founder and chief executive, Ace Greenberg, consistently sit on the open employee floor to eat.

"Ace Greenberg, who founded the firm, sat on the floor every day, and it stuck with me. Like, gosh, that's really a visible statement. He's really accessible," Hochhauser told the media outlet. "You could talk to him; he wasn't sitting in some glass office that's untouchable."

"One of the things that I think I struggle with, I think other CEOs struggle with, is access to unfiltered information," he added. "People wrap you in this bubble... And so if you're breaking bread with people casually over lunch, you tend to get that [information]."

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Hochhauser says that he learns how policies and decisions affect the staffers by eating and interacting with the employees. They also open up without any hesitation and are honest about their feelings.

Sharing an example, he revealed that when Ancestry was getting ready to set new guidelines for returning to the office, Hochhauser said he spoke to the employees during lunch breaks and learned that the team members felt comfortable sharing concerns, such as managing family duties, school drop-offs, and kids' sports schedules.

"People appreciate it, levelling with them and telling them what expectations are," Hochhauser said as quoted. "And over lunch, people were honest and raised their concerns, but also appreciated the candour."