How does the cafeteria work?

[EvanBear]

So I'm confused, I built a cafeteria in my hospital with all required objects but no one is using it. Am I missing something that I need to set up?

[katiem]

when your staff are hungry they'll go to use it :)

but don't forget staff also have other ways to fulfill hunger need. fridge in common room, vending machines, water fountains so they won't ALWAYS use it

[EvanBear]

Ah mine only seem to be using the common rooms because I have a small kitchen in each of them. I've never actually seen anyone use the cafeteria over the common room.

[katiem]

they didnt in mine at first but after a while they started, especially as the hospital got bigger and there was more staff

[vonMoo]

I wonder if staff will visit a cafeteria on a different floor...

[katiem]

Originally posted by vonMoo:

I wonder if staff will visit a cafeteria on a different floor...

not sure, i should imagine so tho.
i have a cafeteria on every floor in the staff area though

[CynicalProle]

Originally posted by Marie:

So I'm confused, I built a cafeteria in my hospital with all required objects but no one is using it. Am I missing something that I need to set up?

One thing I've noticed is once you build the cafeteria, an hour (I believe 12:00-13:00) is designated as staff lunch, and all staff not engaged with a patient leave and head to the cafeteria for lunch. It gets kind of annoying because while staff won't leave...say...a clinic when the queue is ridiculously long just like they won't go on break until it becomes manageable, the queue can get to epic proportions for that hour if all your clinic staff collectively find the time to sneak off to lunch leaving no clinic doctors. I once had both of my pharmacists go to lunch while the emergency clinic was slammed and I ended up with about 10-12 people waiting in the pharmacy for 45 minutes! (I used the prefab pharmacy which has no barrier between patients and back shelves--it's a wonder they didn't just steal the drugs!) Now I'm using the Big Hospital from the DLC, and the way it's designed, they put cafeteria elements like food serving stations, drink stations, donut stands, etc. in the common rooms, on-call rooms, nurses stations, and even the pharmacy. The pharmacy legit has a juice bar in one corner that the pharmacists go drink and eat from at lunch time. Solved that problem.

[Voice From Beyond]

Don't do it. They are animals. They stand in the buffet line and scarf down donuts. They can't even be bothered to sit at the available tables.