To outsiders the office lunchroom may conjure images of half-eaten cheese sandwiches, coffee-stained plastic cups and idle gossip.

In reality though, these kitchenettes and sometimes jumbo cafeterias serve as a nerve center for many office cultures, revealing the reliable, outgoing, quiet and even meticulous personalities of company employees across the Blue Ridge area.

"The lunchroom settings seem to reflect the businesses that they are located in," said Alexander Horniman, a business professor at the University of Virginia who holds a doctorate in psychology from Harvard. "You get dirty, grimy businesses and it takes a lot of energy to have a clean, sparky lunchroom."

So whether factory workers sit boisterously in a cafeteria or real estate agents heat up a Hot Pocket, lunchrooms often evolve from their single utensil starts into comfortable haunts that personify the employees who make the company.

"People use that space for some degree of relationship building," Horniman said.

Merchant Bar Products Division of Steel Dynamics Inc., formerly Roanoke Electric Steel, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, hammering out steel bars and other products in sometimes dangerous work conditions, leaving the male dominated work force tired, sweaty and hungry after grueling shifts.

"It gets dirty because a steel plant is a dirty place," said Sam Miller, director of human resources at the company. "It's a typical cafeteria at a manufacturing plant."

Just the opposite of the sometimes crowded cafeteria is a small, well-kept kitchen tucked away in the offices of the general manager of Valley View Mall, Louise Dudley, that is equipped with a highly coveted dishwashing machine.

The office, Dudley explained, consists of an all-female bunch that is meticulous about clean countertops and sparkling dishes.

The women can be found alone or in groups in the kitchen, heating up lunch or just hanging around for a chat. No matter their purpose, Dudley added, the group is "a little more particular about the cleanliness."

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which employs roughly 800 people in its downtown Roanoke office, applies its insurance skills to maintaining healthy employees.

The cafeteria, which is run by Aramark, houses an outdoor eating area and a brightly lit indoor atrium.

The health care provider also initiated a program called Just 4 U. The campaign includes symbols on certain meals, such as "carb counter" and "low fat," to help employees who sit in cubicles all day make healthy eating choices.

"The job environment does dictate the eating environment," said James Platt, food services director at the cafeteria.

Anthem's facilities also illustrate an interesting workplace phenomenon that is commonplace in communal kitchens -- the notorious "please don't" signs.

Not many people know that Lonnie Kaulback is behind the laminated note on the kitchenette wall of the fifth floor.

The sign, which maps directions to cleaning the small area, is just as polite as the woman sitting past the rows of cubicles at a desk overlooking the city.

"We need to keep in mind there is no one person responsible for this kitchen," the message reads, "it's the floor's responsibility," followed by the word THANK YOU, in capital, italicized letters.

The kitchen, Kaulback explained, stays fairly clean, though she refuses to take sole credit.

"A little reminder now and then doesn't hurt," she said.

The issue, however, is not as prevalent in smaller workplace environments, according to Ed Smith, co-owner/broker of Remax Realtors on Electric Road.

The company did away with a large lunchroom and replaced it with a smaller, more cost-effective kitchenette.

Employees at the national real estate chain hardly used the larger kitchen, an act indicative of the on-the-go, varied eating personalities of real estate agents, Smith said.

"Their office is as much their car as the physical bricks and mortar of our building," he said.

This lifestyle has left Remax with a space void of dirty dishes and expired milk cartons, a real live business example of small community responsibility in population theorist and ecologist Garret Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons."

Without the benefit of a full kitchen, Smith said, everyone seemed to pitch in when the coffeemaker needed to be hosed down.

"We must have clean agents," Smith joked. "I don't mind wiping the counter myself."

Smith's willingness to clean despite his position in the company illustrates the relationship created between a company and its employees through the lunchroom, Horniman said.

"The lunchroom reflects the attitude the enterprise has toward its associates," he said. "It's an interactive phenomenon; one sets the stage for the other."

This relationship is an important one, Horniman added. By giving employees a cozy place to get together and break bread, employers are showing how much they care.

It's a personal touch that is evident in room 707 of the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke. The cafeteria houses a handful of stuffed bears to keep small children entertained.

It's these types of personal touches that create an inviting atmosphere, said Diane Rabb, who has worked at the cafeteria for 22 years.

So whether the office atmosphere is quiet or loud, busy or boring, the working relationship between company and employee counteracts an old idiom. In fact, as lunchrooms across the area reveal, we are not what we eat -- we are where we eat.