People eating at work/at desks

[RightsaidFreud]

This stems from another thread i've just read, and it got me thinking!

Does anyone find that people eating constantly during the day at their desk/in the office, a distraction? I only ask this as my OH sits next to a women who litterally doesn't stop eating during the day. breakfast, 2 bags of crisps, lunch, countless biscuits, fruit. It sounds relentless to be honest, and distracting. He's come across this at the 2 offices he has worked in. Everyone gets an hour for lunch, some people eat at their desks, others will go out or go to another part of the office to eat. He eats lunch at his desk sometimes, doesn't take up the whole hour (hes not a slow eater, more wolf it down kind of guy) but that's it. Not constantly grazing the day away.

Where I work, we're lucky there is an area where we can go sit for lunch, and sometimes I will eat at my desk, and whilst people will eat at different times of the day, its not an ongoing all day activity.

Just wanted to get others opinions really!

You've always got to watch out for cannibals. Think about it next time your co-worker offers you that slice of victoria sponge..... :o

are you sure it's only 20 minutes?

I'd love a 4-hour break

Oops piglet - need to check my grammar there!

I always thought my colleague fancied me... Didn't realise it was because he fancied me for tea !

I graze all day. Never even considered that it might be an issue for anyone else. It's no more distracting than people making loud telephone calls and standing next to me having a loud conversation with a friend about a personal matter.

Piglet

I don't have time for a lunch break most days but even if I am busy I still get hungry so need to eat something. Officially we must take at least half hour for lunch but in reality that rarely happens.

If I worked on a check out I would have set breaks no doubt therefore would be able to have a break away from everyone to eat my lunch.

I am lucky to find time to have a swig of water, then
When my break or home time I literally down 2 glasses of water.

By law you are required to have a 20 min break for every 4 hours that you work not including lunch breaks which are not paid anyway. So there's that opportunity yo have a mid morning and afternoon snack and still do your job.

Not sure where you've got that info from, but it's wrong.

You're entitled to 20 mins off if you work 6hrs or more. That 20 mins can be a lunch break.

There's no entitlement to any other break.

In other words, it's perfectly legal to have a 12hr working shift with a 20 min break in the middle and no other breaks whatsoever.

Ah, just the thread I need for a good soul cleansing share rant.

I work with someone who eats constantly - she's in the office for four hours each day and I reckon a good two hours of that time is taken up with bloody eating.

9am - arse hits seat, first hoola hoop is crunched with mouth open (tis a marvel of synchronisation) - subsequent items in the bag are consumed carefully, one by one, always with the mouth open for maximum noise.

9.30 am - hot food van beeps horn in the car park outside. Purchase of daily hot food item takes approximately 20 mins to get hold of plus time to consume of course.

10.45 - lunch is microwaved - usually a fish pie, curry or left over casserole, much scraping and clinking of cutlery follows.

11.30 - snack time - microwave likely to be involved again.

12.00 - lengthy toilet session required which stinks out the entire office even more (thanks to rancid and cheap air freshener)

1pm - home time.

Arrrgh!

I really don't begrudge anyone a meal or snack but just can't understand how it's logistically possible.

I'm so snowed under that any kind of food at lunchtime or otherwise is a major achievement and the person next to me has time for a 4 course buffet.

Feel better now, thank you OP for starting this thread :)

Oh my god I am a feeder! I take in cakes biscuits or danish pastries for my team every other week. They call me a feeder and a diet sabotager. I don't do it to make them fat, though, just because I like them. I don't eat the cakes myself.

Today I have mostly eaten (at my desk) a bowl of porridge, an apple, a yoghurt and a banana, a slice of tandoori bread, lunch (tuna salad, bag of crisps, Twirl), bag of Randoms, shortbread and fruit compote. On a bad day there would be another chocolate bar and a second packet of crisps.

D

they are paid to work, not snack.

depending on what you do for a living, why can the two not happen at the same time ? If I am eating a kitkat with one hand over a ten minute period while updating a contact log it's hardly stopping me working, is it ?

Bibi -

Is she huge?! What does her boss think of all that eating & not working in 4 hours!!

We have one of those women she is very overweight

YABU and people that think it's gross/weird need to lighten up a bit.

I got into the habit of eating at my desk when I was a lawyer and I still do it every day. I am also an all-day grazer (even more so now I'm pregnant).

There is technically a lunch room at my work but hardly anyone uses it. I find the concept of being forced to have my lunch in a set area and have stilted water cooler conversation a bit weird and not anything to look forward to. I'd rather eat at my desk and catch up on MN/news. When my colleagues and I want to have lunch and a chat, we go out for lunch.

Virtually everyone I know in any job (except eg doctors) eats at their desk. I eat for a bit, do a bit of work/answering emails, look at news, eat a bit more/have a cup of tea etc.

Surely a benefit of living and working in the 21st century is that we can be more flexible in desk-bound jobs and have set lunch times/locations?

Zara1984 You are right, we are in the 21st century and working conditions have changed to be more flexible. But I can't help but wonder whether this all day grazing-and this is in no way directed to you, or anyone else on here- is contributing to the rise in obesity and weight gain in general.

More sedentary jobs and all day eating/snacking can't be a good mix, surely?

He finds the noise of people eating distracting? Christ he couldn't work in our very large noisy open plan office. We have alarm bells going off on the radios of operational staff and them racing out, keys jangling, large records and files being bumped up and down, phones constantly ringing, emergency faxes coming through and the activity that follows! Really nobody notices at all if you eat at your desk!

Luciemay I think I can safely say, hand on heart, he would not last 1 day in an office like that! I will tell him to think himself very lucky :)

Perhaps if more people were aware of this misophonia they would be a little more considerate in open plan offices. Now I'm not claiming to be a sufferer , but I do have to tolerate the 'apple chorus' each day at work when my 3 colleagues seem to compete to see who can make the loudest noise - it is absolutely soul destroying. I even tried to record it on my phone once to let my DH hear just how bad it is!

I think these apple chobblers need to be outed. Maybe go up behind them with a large airhorn when they least suspect? :o

I would have said YANBU until I fell pregnant and now have to eat constantly. I even annoy myself, but I would guess my workmates would prefer the sight of me chowing down on a fruit plate or croissant to groans and dry heaving...

:) No, average size Gumby - boss doesn't like to get involved in issues involving his staff, think he often forgets he's even supposed to be a 'boss'

God, the apple crunching - I can sympathise since I get the same each lunchtime but with crisps (in triplicate and all at the same time)

I've taken to moistening each crisp to a pulp before swallowing nowadays because the noise has become so abhorrent (and to save being an utter hippocrite when it's my turn :))

Our office is as noisy as Luciemays - nobody would even hear the sound of a bag of crisps being opened !

oOOOooo I do hate the sound of crunching slurping fruit.