this is probably how I'd write it (assuming pg properly pushes the predicates down to the subquery in the lateral join) select mi.*, x.employee_id, x.custome

this is probably how I'd write it (assuming pg properly pushes the predicates down to the subquery in the lateral join) select mi.*, x.employee_id, x.customer_id from meal_items mi join lateral ( select e.store_id, em.created, em.employee_id, customer_id = null from employee_markouts em join employees e on e.id = em.employee_id where em.meal_item_id = mi.id union all select c.store_id, co.created, employee_id = null, co.customer_id from customer_order_items coi join customer_orders co on co.id = coi.customer_order_id join customers c on c.id = co.customer_id where coi.meal_item_id = mi.id) x where x.store_id = 250 and x.created between '2021-02-03' and '2021-02-03' order by mi.id