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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask if my joke to new work colleague would have offended you?

591 replies

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 07:58

We are quite a small team and had a new staff member join this week. It’s a very friendly and jokey culture so we are always light heartedly ribbing each other.

Anyway - new colleague was eating a salad with two boiled eggs. We were chatting and she says that’s a usual weekday lunch for her. I replied that I bet she has stocked up on the air freshener for when she’s home.

Blank face…sense of humour failure on her part?

OP posts:
Itiswhysofew · 25/10/2025 09:09

I'd've been surprised, but would've laughed.

ThatGreatMember · 25/10/2025 09:09

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 08:02

It’s a good job you don’t work with us, then!

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It’s a good thing for most people that they d not work with you.

Ghostellas · 25/10/2025 09:09

I’d probably have laughed. Some people are too serious but equally I’d not have made that joke to somebody I didn’t know

notthisagain2025 · 25/10/2025 09:08

Only mumsnetters and little kids find farts/fart jokes funny. Most of us would just have thought wtf?

User372849 · 25/10/2025 09:08

I think you need to get your digestion checked out

THIS lol. I eat eggs regularly and they dont give me gas or any digestive discomfort.

OP- maybe its not the eggs- maybe YOU are just a naturally very farty/smelly person so you assume its the eggs

Plugsocketrocket · 25/10/2025 09:07

The problem really is it just is not funny. Jokes need to be funny.

LillyPJ · 25/10/2025 09:07

Inappropriate comment to a new work colleague. It's also not funny, and she might not have even understood the 'joke'. (I didn't know eggs had that reputation.)

diddl · 25/10/2025 09:07

Why would it be a soh fail on her part rather than your attempt to embarrass her just wasn't funny?

I have visions of your cronies laughing uproariously & saying "ooh you are a one".

EmeraldShamrock000 · 25/10/2025 09:07

No, it is not okay to mock your colleagues, especially new people who don't know if you are joking or just a cow.

theillustratedmum12 · 25/10/2025 09:06

Are you an 8 year old boy?

Blarghism · 25/10/2025 09:06

Guildford321 · 25/10/2025 08:51

Eh?

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I think they're trying to say that the upper classes smell bad. Hence the term 'stinking rich'.

EleanorReally · 25/10/2025 09:05

i eat egg sandwiches very regularly in the office, they are my go to

researchers3 · 25/10/2025 09:05

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 07:58

We are quite a small team and had a new staff member join this week. It’s a very friendly and jokey culture so we are always light heartedly ribbing each other.

Anyway - new colleague was eating a salad with two boiled eggs. We were chatting and she says that’s a usual weekday lunch for her. I replied that I bet she has stocked up on the air freshener for when she’s home.

Blank face…sense of humour failure on her part?

Just not very amusing.

Rosscameasdoody · 25/10/2025 09:05

MumoftwoNC · 25/10/2025 08:02

It’s a very friendly and jokey culture so we are always light heartedly ribbing each other.

I hate this kind of thing, hate it.

Why do l have the feeling that it won’t be long before OP’s employers are dealing with a formal complaint 🤣

GentleSheep · 25/10/2025 09:05

I think "too soon" might sum this up. If you're a jokey team, then your new person needs to get the feel of the place and would not have done so at that point, plus you also need to get the measure of them over time. Best to wait before dropping that type of personal joke.

opencecilgee · 25/10/2025 09:05

Bad taste.

The joke.

Not the lunch.

RisingSunn · 25/10/2025 09:04

I wouldn't be offended but wouldn't laugh because I don't find crass jokes particularly funny.

Invinoveritaz · 25/10/2025 09:04

You think you need to get your digestion checked out.
I can eat 2 eggs without any effect. I think I would have looked blankly too as I wasn’t’ aware till now that eating eggs was a thing.

Also I was brought up to believe it’s rude to comment on other people’s food. I think it’s impolite so yabu.

Blarghism · 25/10/2025 09:03

OP, were you trying to say that her lunch stinks or were you saying that eggs (or salad?) make you fart?

CrossCountryWoosh · 25/10/2025 09:03

windchimeheaven · 25/10/2025 08:59

Well, I've learned something from this thread anyway: Some people can smell eggs. I had no idea. I don't smell them and had no idea some other people could.

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They stink! 🤣 They are one of the most anti-social things you can eat in a small office.
They make me 🤢 a bit when my daughter eats them at home but at least I can open a window or go to another room.
I guess at least the smell doesnt linger too much. Unlike the microwave fish someone at my work has every Friday. You can still smell it on Saturday.

MumoftwoNC · 25/10/2025 09:03

Abbeymum · 25/10/2025 08:02

It’s a good job you don’t work with us, then!

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Indeed. I'm in the majority though according to the poll.

I'm not totally joyless, I can appreciate some humour (in moderation) in the workplace. But the best humour is usually self deprecating and/or clever in some way, like incorporating a pun.

Your joke was poor in two ways:
1, It was at the expense of the other person (rather than yourself or a mutual enemy like HMRC or a nightmare client or something)
2, it was about bodily functions, a big no-no when someone is eating.

The only way you could have made it worse is if you brought in sex, politics or religion.

BadgernTheGarden · 25/10/2025 09:02

Probably thought you were criticising what she was eating, which you were. Not faintly funny and they may worry about what they are allowed to eat by the egg police, not nice to a new member of staff.

HostaCentral · 25/10/2025 09:02

Do people honestly think eggs don't stink!! Well I have learned something too. As previously posted, eggs, tuna, popcorn, cheese and onion crisps, all absolutely honk.

MidnightMusing5 · 25/10/2025 09:01

I think she was rude for eating boiled eggs in a small office .

windchimeheaven · 25/10/2025 08:59

HostaCentral · 25/10/2025 08:58

Yes they do, and you are therefore just as bad.

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Well, I've learned something from this thread anyway: Some people can smell eggs. I had no idea. I don't smell them and had no idea some other people could.