To think people should have breakfast BEFORE work?

[candybeek]

If you work a normal daily shift like 9-5 office hours, then I feel it's really odd people come in to work and immediately start pouring milk on their cornflakes or dashing to the canteen for a greasy fry up.
I'm in the minority at my work place that have breakfast at home before work.
I understand it if you work shifts etc but 9-5??

I find it really odd, what's next - people using the kitchen to cook their tea before they leave for work?

It's even worse as they bring their smelly breakfasts back to their desk so I have to inhale it all.

Am I on my own in this thought?

I am up at 5.30 then leave at 6 for a 2 hr commute so I'm at my desk at 8 to start work.
I have breakfast at 8, I'm not getting up even earlier to fit that in! And I don't want to be that smelly messy person eating muesli on the train.

I also take a thyroid tablet which needs no food for at least an hour so even if I didn't have a stupid commute I'm not willing to get up extra early just for that.

I start at 8 and leave at 4.12 (train) so work exactly my 36 hrs a week so my breakfast comes out my hours. Except I never take an hour for lunch and spend at least 20 minutes, sometimes longer, working on the train each end of the day.

I'd be pretty pissed off if colleagues thought I was a pisstaker. I can see I might look like one on the above evidence but I definitely work more than my hours each week so any assumptions otherwise would be wrong.

I only do this commute twice a week btw. Not relevant to the thread but including for completeness.

i dont agree with this either,
seems sloppy, in the people I know, who are not mothers of young children. Just get up earlier.

and i worked with someone in the past who started work at 9 but as soon as they got there, on the Dot would disappear upstairs for a fag

OP yanbu why do people think it's ok to have breakfast at work? We gave showers but people manage to shower at home beforehand so why is it ok to eat breakfast? And btw all of those eating porridge it does smell

If people are working fewer hours because if it, there's a problem.

Only if they do less work and there isn't necessarily a strict relationship between the 2. If you treat staff like children it will piss them off and that may also cause them to do less.

I always eat breakfast at my desk. I used to jog to work and can't run after eating. Now I have a long commute and leave the house at 6am, and can't face food that early.

No one cares. I'm lucky to work in the sort of place where despite not officially having flexitime, people are trusted to work their hours. So some people turn up 45min late every day, but they will be there long after everyone else has left.

People get far too uptight about what their workmates are doing.

I can't face food as soon as I wake up and certainly would not want to bolt down a breakfast at 7 am while rushing to get ready for work. My 'breakfast' is anywhere between 10 and 12 because that's when I start to feel ready to eat.

So long as it's not interfering with people putting in their required hours of work I don't think it's really any of your business.

My Dh has someone in his office who can come in right at the last minute (they have flexible start times of 8-9:30) and then go off for a half hour toilet break. I think that's also taking the piss.

The trouble is not people who are flexible and pull their weight, it's the ones who are there for the bare minimum and then spending loads of work time on personal stuff.

And if you are having breakfast at your desk, you are not working, you are not able to answer the phone for instance, you might be reading your emails, logging on etc.,

Another person who can't stomach food as soon as they wake up here.

Although now I'm on medication that I can't eat immediately after taking so if I were back to commuting I'd have to eat in the office or I'd be getting up nearer to 5am and I'd be ravenous long before lunch

I have a bowl of granola at my desk. I don't see the big deal? I go to the gym first thing and if I ate before that I'd have to eat my granola at 5am and would be hungry by 9.30 again anyway. I'm not hungry yet when I get home from the gym and I also have to get two children ready for school in a hurry. Then I cycle to work. The first time I'm properly hungry and actually ready for my breakfast is when I get into work, so... that's when I have it. I check emails at the same time, if that helps? Do you also get cross with people having drinks at their desk?

Yeah, I have breakfast at my desk every day and I don't have an excuse like small child or medical requirements - I just prefer to breakfast around 9.

However, I'm bloody good at my job and I get the work done. I'm employed to do a job, not to sit at a desk for an allotted time period.

candybeek: They aren't though, they come in for 9, log on then trot off to get their face filled!

So they don't actually start work until around 9.30-10? What job allows you to do that?!
TBH, if the company managers allow it there is not a lot you can do but just seems a bit odd that they skive off the minute they arrive!

Seriously mumsnet gets on my tits sometimes. I don't know whether it reveals a side to the general population that I don't normally encounter and therefore doesn't bother me, or whether there's a niche demographic of petty nitpickers that just post here.

op i dont think you are going to change the work breakfast eaters point of view.

I'm like mousehole so I eat oatcakes on the train then i get my breakfast at work - usually toast or porridge,
I go through my emails while I eat & do up my to do list so I work while eating.
I'm up at 6am & at my desk 830am.

Girlwithnotatoos - actually I know someone who goes into work, eats breakfast and then washes and dries her hair in the toilets! That is taking the piss!

I'd say about 50% of people eat their breakfast at work in my team.

We gave showers but people manage to shower at home beforehand so why is it ok to eat breakfast?

Actually I shower at work. I bike in. Shower and change. Pick up breakfast from the canteen and go sit at my desk and eat breakfast whilst triaging emails and checking industry news.

I'm another that eats at my desk. I start work about 7:30 and don't want to eat before then. I also work in the evenings, weekends and whenever needed. My manager doesn't give a monkey when I eat :-)

I knew I was in the minority seeing as I'm one of the few people who eat breakfast at home.

Like I said before, they all work 9-5 not a minute earlier or later yet nip to get breakfast after 9, clank their cutlery, make the office stink of greasy food then leave plates on the desks til lunchtime.

Maybe I'm just too conscientious!

YABU - what affect does it have on you? If your employer allows it, then what is the problem?

It depends. When you work with adults, who come early or leave late when required, often through their lunch break if needed, I would hardly notice. I have people in my team who disappear for a coffee for half an hour or more mid-morning, and it's fine. They are not slackers.

However, when you have someone who turns up a minute before they are due to start, and leave on the dot, then it is not ok at all. These people don't really last long around me, but the trick is to call them in meeting, or pile work on their desk so they can't eat a mouthful.

personal internet use at work gets my Goat op. breakfast at work, surprises me

I'm employed to do a job, not to sit at a desk for an allotted time period.

This. If they're successfully doing the job they're employed to do, what's the problem? I'm so glad I've already had flexible managers who've trusted me to organise my own time.

and you couldnt have breakfast at work easily if you worked in a shop or in a factory for isntance

*always