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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be irritated by colleague constantly commenting on my lunch

105 replies

sharonthewaspandthewineywall · 03/03/2015 21:04

I dont eat particularly healthy but have say sandwich and crisps for lunch. One particularly healthy colleague is always making comments and slights. Its so irritating im starting to consider eating in the car rather than the office to avoid the continual grilling and comments.
AIBU (I know I am a bit)

OP posts:
ShadowSpiral · 04/03/2015 07:12

YANBU. I think comments on people's lunch are only acceptable if they're along the "oh, that looks tasty" line - without any hints or requests to be offered some!

Have you told her she's being annoying and asked her to stop?

Hissy · 04/03/2015 07:23

Have you tried the old "oh do shut the fuck up dear"?

WilburIsSomePig · 04/03/2015 07:27

I have a colleague who used to stand beside me and oink like a pig when I was eating a piece of cake or something. Fucked her right off that I've lost almost 2 stone and still going while gasp still being able to eat the occasional slice of cake in the staff room.

SweetValentine · 04/03/2015 07:47

Don't butter your bread and put a note in one half of your sandwich. When she peers to have a look lift the slice of bread off so she can see your sandwich filling is "Fuck off Joan".

DeladionInch · 04/03/2015 07:55

"I'm so lucky to have a healthy attitude to food. I'd hate to be stuck in the binge and deprivation cycle the modern diet industry has created in so many women"

southeastastra · 04/03/2015 07:57

some people are overly obsessed by food, it's very dull for everyone else.

take a cold big mac in one day for entertainment purposes.

SomewhereIBelong · 04/03/2015 08:01

when people are being tiresome I channel my DD14's eyeroll and eyebrow lift - shuts 'em up...

HoraceCope · 04/03/2015 08:10

I gave up taking crisps to work as I had a very similar colleague, she took cold food - not just salad, all sorts, to work, she left a plate of food covered in clingfilm on her desk all day, so boring, and then would take all afternoon to eat it.
She was insistent that bread was fattening and really upset an overweight temp woman we had by telling her so.
i feel your pain.

wobblebobblehat · 04/03/2015 08:25

"Who are you, the Food Police?"

You can use this phrase for lots of things... food, clothes, arrival time, cups of tea drunk, time at water cooler, amount of work completed.

Works a treat. Every time I've ever said it, the offender usually looks embarassed.

I don't miss working in an office with annoying colleagues!

Ledkr · 04/03/2015 08:51

Not to derail the thread but I thought I'd share as quite funny.
Colleague who sat next to me when I was pg with dc FIVE, was also pg with PFB.
About twenty times a day she would comment "oh, are u stil drinking tea/coffee/coke?" Or "are u allowed to eat that. Cheese/meat/yogurt?"
This was as well as her refusing to do anything other than sit down and demanding a disabled space in the carpark. She had nothing wrong, I had spd and ride my bike in!! Grin

chrome100 · 04/03/2015 08:57

YANBU. I eat a load of crap at work. I'm an adult, I can do as I please. I'm always getting comments from colleagues. I'm not fat, I feel fine, none of their business. I hate it.

Morelikeguidelines · 04/03/2015 08:59

Yanbu. Really annoying to have someone commenting on what you are eating.

Nomama · 04/03/2015 09:01

Bloodymidges idea is bloody brilliant!

If I still shared an office with the food policewoman I would definitely do that. It is much more subtle and fun than my solution:

"Shut up. It is my food, I am eating it and I have no interest in your opinion" Repeated for about a week - she did seem to take forever to understand I was replying to her

ItsCarnage · 04/03/2015 09:21

I have a food commenter but more they go on about how the food im eating is not as healthy as I think etc.
Yesterday I made a comment about my habit of drinking orange juice,they went to open there mouth and I just told them to shut up before they could get two words out.

LingDiLong · 04/03/2015 09:29

Depending on what she puts in the salad and whether it has anything protein-y in it she might well be starving hungry all day - no wonder she's obsessed with everyone elses food! She's probably jealous too if she feels she 'can't' ever have cake or anything other than salad. I think you should make a really big deal of how delicious your food is; lots of 'mmmmm' 'this is sooo good' while you're eating your crisps.

Pedallleur · 04/03/2015 09:31

Ask her to buy your lunch for you

BadPoet · 04/03/2015 09:37

My entire office is obsessed with food. It starts at about 11, the checking what everyone is having for lunch etc. I find it quite charming but then I am only part time and I only ever have a sandwich. Most of them are on diets or slimming regimes of one sort or another and I do think they are mildly obsessed with food. I find myself asking about other people's lunch even though I don't care - it's part of the workplace culture.

I do rant to dh though, not about what they say but about 'the modern diet industry binge and deprivation cycle', thanks Deladion.

miniavenger · 04/03/2015 09:44

yanbu op. Ignore any food related comments like 'i want cake' and tell her that she appears to have an unhealthy obsession with food and should speak to someone about it.

PomPomPingPong · 04/03/2015 09:52

ZacharyQuackGrin

plainjanine · 04/03/2015 10:05

There's always the good old Mumsnet "Did you mean to be so rude?"

More seriously, this is a form of bullying. You could point that out to her. Either subtly or very bluntly. But whichever way you do it, try make sure her manager is present when you do it?

Good luck! I've had a similar issue in the past - not about food, but playing the bullying card did get it stopped immediately. Our manager was paranoid about workplace etiquette/litigation, which helped.

SummerHouse · 04/03/2015 10:19

"Its ok for me to eat this as I don't have to offset an alcohol problem."

reni1 · 04/03/2015 11:40

Yanbu, it is extremely rude. Before you get (or unpack) your lunch, say "I am going to get lunch now. Please do not comment on it." Do this for a week.

harrietTheFly · 04/03/2015 11:50

Yanbu. I worked with a colleague who was always telling me bread was evil and I might as well eat cake as it's just as healthy. I don't know why he was so obsessed with what I ate. I was underweight at the time and trying to gain but even if I wasn't, it isn't really his or anyone else's business. Some people are weird.

SuperFlyHigh · 04/03/2015 13:30

Go away I'm trying to eat/you're putting me off my lunch. Passive aggressive I know but direct and to the point!

If you engage you just draw the scenarios out.

BigChocFrenzy · 04/03/2015 15:30

How rude to comment on other people's food choices, for being too healthy / unhealthy / different.

Answers:
. Follow me to the toilet, so you can comment on my crap too.
. Some folk enjoy rabbit food, but I'm tolerant of saddos
. I need crisps / cake / .... because dealing with nosey twats depletes my glycogen stores