Do you think Managing Directors should lunch with their employees?

Every so often my Managing Director squeezes in and joins us his employees for lunch.

It makes us feel really uncomfortable . We hate it. As a matter of fact, as soon as he arrives the atmosphere changes. People are not as relaxed and/or there is a deafening silence until he speaks.

I think he is trying to make people relaxed around him . But I don’t think it is working. I think as long as you are the boss people will always feel like they have to put on an act of being professional all the time. Because at the end of the day the boss runs things. He controls your salary, your promotion and your performance reviews.

Also it is quite obvious that he is doing it for PR reasons as he often dreams when you are talking/ looks away. It is so obvious he is just doing it because he was taught he should as a boss. I think it is fake.

What is your opinion on this?