Cooking smoked mackerel fish in office kitchen

[HipHopOpotomus]

Last night DP came home and we were chatting about our days.

He said there was a bit of an incident at work. Oh yes? I ask. "Yes, I cooked mackerel for lunch ............." he starts.

"YABU" I declare interrupting him. "I need no further info, you cooked the stinkiest fish in an enclosed space so the entire office stunk of fish. It is without question unreasonable behaviour. Many people will find that very upsetting. Best to eat the smoked mackerel cold or not at all."

He looked at me like I was an evil genius who had not only read his mind but that of an entire West End office floor!!!

WIBU?

I sometimes have to share my space with trainees, and the very first thing I tell them is 'Thou Shalt Not Eat Lunch in Eldritch's Office. Ever'. Even if there is a snow storm outside and they don't want to go out (we're a bit short on communal spaces they could use). Because I once had a trainee who brought Enormous Packed Lunches with him, then rustled tin foil and munched smelly sandwiches, quiche, oranges and whatever from about 11 am to 3pm.

Yes, I'm mean but seniority has its benefits.

Love your style EC

Yup. The joy of working for a Greek Cypriot firm. Apparently it's a delicacy

I used to sit by the microwave at work. People used to heat up stinky food by me 12 to about 2.30pm. The stink would linger all afternoon.

Repeated polite requests and less polite comments about farts didn't work so one day I went mental.

The microwave disappeared the next day with a notice signed by the boss in its place saying it had been removed on health and safety grounds.

She didn't go into exactly whose health and safety she was worried about.

All fish should be banned from offices.

Thanks, HipHop!

Awful trainee lunch stories abound in this place (it's an environment where the trainees are doing work placement so they 'shadow' us, pretty much literally, while they're here).

The one who frequently ate a whole (large) cheesecake is my favourite. Not smelly, just very slurpy and nausea-inducing. I didn't directly witness it, but it got in his beard apparently.

We have our own Microwave Monitor, who pounces on anyone heating up smelly food and complains. We're all so intimidated by him that the microwave is scarcely used.

A cup of white vinegar left in the kitchen helps neutralise the smell of cooked fish.

YANBU. That is GROSS.

EC you've taken me back to the horrors of sharing an office with an assistant who slurped, snotted, spat, snorted, mumbled and crumbled through his day EVERY day.

I was very direct & he paid not a blind bit of notice. I had to ban all food from the room.

Oh the horror of those memories

We have our own Microwave Monitor, who pounces on anyone heating up smelly food and complains. We're all so intimidated by him that the microwave is scarcely used.

Ahh! A kindred spirit eldritch

YANBU - it's COMPLETELY unreasonable and antisocial to heat up something that smells that much in a communal space!
Mind you, I hated it when other people in our office used to bring in curry as well, either fresh or re-heated leftovers
Wasn't that keen when people brought in hot fried food either...

Another one here who won't let trainees eat in my office.
I had one who ate sardines sandwiches every day for a week, that's when I put the ban in, disgusting.
I also had a trainee who used to go out, buy McDonald's and bring it back and EAT IT IN MY OFFICE.

WTAF????

Heh heh.
At least with trainees I have power, because they need me to do a good appraisal at the end of the placement. Since I brought in my ban I haven't had one that chose greed over arselikan.

Though there was Aftershave Boy. Lovely, lovely chap, but no one could manage to be brusque enouigh to tell him that he really needed to tone the scent down. And there was no need for it-he was appealing enough without it and didn't seem to be using it to disguise some Embarrassing Problem.

Blurgh, yack, I used to share office space with an ancient old git who chain smoked and ate egg sandwiches and did that spitting thing when he talked. He occasionally answered my phone if I was away from my desk, boak, heave spew.

I shouted at the man who used to get grease over the earpiece of my phone when he used to attempt to steal my contacts answer it mayaswell.

And he was a fan of the Cabbage Soup Diet.

When I was pg with DD a colleague kept ordering those graze boxes and had the smelliest garlic olives...Every day!
He knew they made me sick but still carried on eating them at his desk. So rude.

The bloke opposite me regularly brings in curried eggs. Curried EGGS I ask you!!

I'm sure they're delicious but they don't half reek.

When I was pregnant last year, I spent a lot of time running to the toilets because I couldn't stand the smell of coffee/tea/marmite/any cooked food but especially fish, curry, pizza and baked potatoes, and to be fair, my closest colleagues, all of whom twigged I was pg before I announced, did alter what they ate/drank to accommodate me...

BUT there was one who always had a cooked meal at lunchtime, and would normally reheat in the microwave, and as it stank out the entire office including the toilets, there was no where to hide so I frequently ended up sitting on the front step until I got the all clear!!! Bless her, she had a heart of gold, but god did the food she ate stink!!

UANBU
Smelly fish or stinky cheese in a Vigo Ed space is not on.

More poor grandpa wasn't even allowed to cook kippers in his own kitchen.

Nan made him use a portable electric ring in the garage!

(in her defence it was a two bedroom bungalow, so there was no escape from stinky kippers).

Enclosed. WTF is autocorrect on this time?????????

I once worked with a really sweet lady, who used to buy a baked potato with tuna for lunch every day and eat it very very slowly one tiny bite every 5 minutes over several hours. The smell of warm tuna was vomit inducing. Eventually I cracked and asked her to either eat it QUICKLY or eat it elsewhere. She sort of squeaked in horror and ran off to an office to throw it away in a bin well away from me. I felt terrible - poor woman. She really had no idea and was mortified.

On the upside she never brought lunch back to her desk again.