Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that I should be able to eat at work?

394 replies

GlassyPinkP · 17/07/2018 11:04

I work in an office, am not public facing, and sit behind a computer all day. 6 months pregnant and feel hungry throughout the day, but heartburn means I can't eat big meals. I've been eating at my desk (not huge or smelly meals, usually a bowl of cereal, sandwich, fruit etc) throughout the day. It doesn't impact on my work and it makes me feel a whole heap less hungry throughout the day compared to when I eat a tiny breakfast and a tiny lunch in between!

My manager has raised with me that one of my colleagues is not happy that I am eating a lot at my desk (I'm within my calories, it's not a huge amount it's just more spread out). Apparently I should go in to the kitchen area and eat out there. Everyone eats their lunch at their desks but their screens are turned off so it's an official lunch break.

AIBU to think I should be allowed to have a 30 min lunch break to eat my sandwiches and if I want to eat fruit or the odd bowl of cereal 2/3 times a day this shouldn't be an issue?

I'm finding pregnancy really hard and have nausea constantly as well as heartburn and gallbladder problems. Food helps! I don't want to be banished to standing in the kitchen every time I want to eat an orange...

Opinions?

OP posts:
Bibesia · 18/07/2018 11:51

You'd have been physically removed from the office by security and senior management in that case at my place @spugzbunny.

Which would earn them assault charges to add to the list of their problems.

SunShades · 18/07/2018 12:33

@Bibesia

Nope, senior management have the right to escort someone who has assaulted them off the premises.

DarlingNikita · 18/07/2018 12:40

Oh, ignore Sun, everyone. S/he either works in a sweatshop and is proud of it, or has weird fantasies about doing so. Crack on mate, whatever floats your boat.

GameOfMinges · 18/07/2018 12:42

I wasn't guessing though, OP said that there was room for a chair.

Well, no. She says she could put a chair in there and people would say she's a fire hazard. That actually rather suggests there isn't room for a chair to safely be in there, and thus your contention that she could just put a chair in the kitchen and the environment would then be suitable is an assumption not borne out by what OP has actually written.

Magicstar1 · 18/07/2018 12:54

If everyone is eating lunch at their desks then there's no reason you can't have your snacks there. I work in an office with my boss and I'm losing weight...my day is
Banana first thing, scrambled egg made in the microwave about 9.30, fruit during the morning, lunch at 1.30, more fruit in the afternoon.
She does a lot of training and has coffee & croissant first thing, porridge about 10, snacks, lunch at 1, more snacks in the afternoon.

I hope you can get it sorted OP.

Iizzyb · 18/07/2018 12:57

Either you eat at your desk or they agree additional breaks for you & find you somewhere to go & sit.

If you need to eat little & often either they accommodate that or they send you home on full pay.

I suspect that would focus the employer'a mind pretty quickly - I find with my clients it usually works for them (employment solicitor advising companies!)

CakeThanks for the heartburn and having to work with such horrid and stupid people

RoseWhiteTips · 18/07/2018 13:15

Keyboards must get skanky if people chomp all day in some “offices”.

Walkingdeadfangirl · 18/07/2018 14:01

If you are allowed to eat at your desk any time you want they everyone would have to be allowed to eat at their desks any time of the desk as well. That just isn't acceptable in an office.

Its a desk job so I dont think standing in a small kitchen for 60 sec to eat an orange is unreasonable even if you are pregnant.

Simple solution is to have a liquid meal (or orange juice) in a opaque water bottle at your desk and you can snack all day long anytime you want.

DarlingNikita · 18/07/2018 14:19

Rose, why the sneer quotes around the word offices?

Walking, the OP's colleagues DO eat at their desks outside lunchtime, if you read her posts thoroughly.

IAmGrootGrootIAm · 18/07/2018 14:30

I really don’t understand why some people are giving the op such a hard time.

Op, yanbu. Your colleague and manager are being twats. Luckily your managers manager is a reasonable human being.

When your colleague made the initial complaint about you eating too often, your manager should have asked them why they were complying? What impact was it having on your colleague? And realised then and there that they were being a dick.

Bibesia · 18/07/2018 15:32

SunShades, the operative word is "escort". You claimed they would physically remove someone. Not the same thing.

NoWordForFluffy · 18/07/2018 15:36

I didn't know I worked in an "office". I must do as we can eat at our desks (though hot food was recently banned, so we can't eat anything we like!).

SunShades · 18/07/2018 16:18

@Bibesia

We would have the right to(and would) physically remove them if they refused to leave peacefully.

cherish123 · 18/07/2018 17:37

Cereal at your desk? It would annoy at lot of people. Could you have a banana instead? Or ask to split your lunch break?

Rebecca36 · 18/07/2018 17:45

I feel sorry for you and think you should be allowed to snack at your desk as you are pregnant.

pollymere · 18/07/2018 17:45

They need to make reasonable adjustments for your pregnancy. If they wish for you to eat in the kitchen, I would suggest they provide a chair for you to do so. Or, you could of course just eat at your desk.

Nousernamefound · 18/07/2018 17:48

Do you eat loudly? I can’t bear the sound of hearing people eat so this would drive me mad, but if you’re a reaonsable eater with nice manners I definitely wouldn’t begrudge it, especially as you’re pregnant.

purplebunny2012 · 18/07/2018 17:49

The whole thing is weird. If you have to eat away from your desk you'll be getting less work done!
Everyone in my office eats what they want, when they want, including antisocial smelly foods! I have my toast at my desk mid-morning. And I have my screen on at lunch so I can use the internet, but I'm definitely not working.

birdseyeview · 18/07/2018 17:58

How about you get signed off for the rest of your pregnancy?!

We have lunch in a canteen at work but EVERY day my colleague starts to eat the noisiest apple in the world as soon as we sit at our desks .... I wish she would eat it in the canteen! The noise irritates me even though I love apples but I don’t want to irritate others with that sound. She also drinks/slurps tea through a straw, not sure why and I think it’s the same straw she’s had for a year. We do eat nuts and seeds at our desks.

Slurp away OP!

GameOfMinges · 18/07/2018 17:59

Do remember that sunshades works in a gulag so the employment laws there are probably a bit different.

Bibesia · 18/07/2018 18:19

SunShades, in the UK at least that would be extremely unwise. And given that OP works in the UK, that is what is relevant, not whatever peculiar practices are operated where you manage.

I see we have to add another non-management skill to senior management's list in your office. It now comprises of:

  1. Lots of patrolling.
  2. Acting as bouncers.
  3. Taking a l o o o o o o n n n g g g time considering urgent requests from staff if they need to leave the building during office hours due to emergencies.

However, it doesn't include being available to, say, talk to employees. They have far too much Important Patrolling to do.

BrokenWing · 18/07/2018 18:23

Your manager should find out the exact issue the complainer is having with you specifically eating more often during your pregnancy, just saying you are snacking too often is not a justifiable reason. Is it because of smell, noise, do they think you are slacking off, then a conversation can be had to see if there is a compromise or misunderstanding.

If it is noisy cereal or apples or smell you can eat quieter, maybe use a plastic spoon in a cereal bowl, close your mouth when eating Wink or less smelly food. If she has no justifiable reason to complain she should be told to so.

Boulty · 18/07/2018 18:24

wow people actually want to stab someone because they eat cereal or nosily - intolerance is high.... or is it just on mn where lots of people say stupid things they don't really mean

Bezm · 18/07/2018 18:30

I can't bear hearing people eating. It's not too bad if I'm eating too, so lunch time isn't a big deal. However, at other times, anyone eating apples, carrots, crisps, cereal etc drives me insane. Normally I would walk away because I know it's my problem. I would suggest to your boss that either you move away from this person, or they move away from you for the remainder of your pregnancy.
time.com/4659308/misophonia-noisy-eating-science/

Catsandkids78 · 18/07/2018 18:42

I work in HR , tell them you need to snack as you have a medical requirement to do so leave it at that.

I have many diabetic staff snack at their desks - imagine if I told them not to eat at their desks.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.