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

[GlassyPinkP]

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?

is metaphor too a steep gradient?

Dunno about gradients but you know they can't go upstairs

Eating at desks hasn’t been allowed since we moved into newly refurbished offices, it was suggested by management and agreed by staff. There is a really nice canteen area with fridges, oven, hob microwaves and tables and chairs. Smells and noise are isolated from the workspace, staff get a proper break when eating, and there has been a lot of feedback about how it’s increased the sociability within the company as people chat with people they don’t normally sit near. Nobody is forced to go to the canteen, they can go off premises if they want, but everybody uses it most of the time.
Everyone felt that the convenience of being able to eat at their own desk was outweighed by the annoyance of other people eating at their own desks!

Dunno about gradients but you know they can't go upstairs

I remember that super ep the first time round when they were stymied by the stairs, but didn't some super Dalek fly/levitate much later on? Pesky things.

GameOfMinges Wed 18-Jul-18 12:42:31
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

Yeah well, all sorts of people say all sorts of things don't they?
Still room for a chair.

The OP's work have already been made more than reasonable adjustments in allowing her to eat in the kitchen.

No they haven't. The key word is "reasonable". She's already said she'd have to stand whilst eating, and that it's a small frequently used kitchen so she'd constantly have to get out of people's way. That's not a reasonable adjustment by any stretch of imagination.

But it just isn't acceptable in an office @Catsandkids78. Not one with any standards of decorum or civility anyway.

Yes it is. Offices in their thousands allow staff to eat at their desks and to take lunch breaks when it suits them and their work pattern. And they're not all exclusively populated by uncivilised thugs, either.

They're also reinforced regularly by myself and the rest of the senior management team both during morning staff briefings and our patrols of the office.

Yay, yet more patrolling! SunShades and her colleagues may be the world's worst managers, but they're shit hot patrollers. In fact I don't believe these people are senior managers, I think they're guards.

RoseWhite, check out SunShades' posts generally, you'll understand then precisely what gives rise to the reference to an imaginary office.

Eating at your desk is clearly only done in small fry places.

Well, no. It's normal practice at a substantial number of very large fry places.

@Bibesia

I can assure you it's a very real office

I'm a nurse so I get to work the best part of a 12-hr shift, sometimes without eating at all... no break, no time. But I well remember my former office life, when I thought that lunch and coffee breaks were my absolute right and set in stone (I would never have believed, when I was working an 8-hr day with an hour for lunch, that I would one day be working a 12hr shift with no break at all!) - I also remember that I was one of those people who wanted to heave at the sound of people eating at their desks. Not just the noise, but the fact that it is so unhygienic!! Do you have any idea how many germs are on your keypad / mouse / phone? It's really not a good place to eat. I think as you are pregnant and need to eat little and often, you should go into the kitchen area and eat there. And contact HR if you get any trouble with this request!

I was the same in my last pregnancy (no gall bladder problems though - poor you!)

Very lucky for me my office had a lady come round with a trolley of food, including bacon and sausage rolls! So smelly foods too

One can only think the colleague finds cereal crunching, oranges smell (which I love myself) distracting.

Could there be a compromise of foods that have less smell and noise when eating? Perhaps the colleague change desks, further away? Given it’s the norm to eat lunch at the desk, i do agree that there’s precedent but could also understand if your colleague found it distracting (or cause themselves nausea, headache etc from some odours or noise).

Best of luck. Hope it works out.

Sounds like sunshades is a sock puppet

I’d struggle with someone slurping cereal next to me while I’m working

Do you work with apes?

@RoseWhiteTips, you do make me laugh with your general unpleasant demeanour across Mumsnet. Almost like you feel you have to object to everything and everyone. I don't give a shiny shit what you think about me or my posts, quite frankly, as I'm aware of your posting style so it's water off a duck's back (I'm sure the feeling is mutual, before you decide to say the same back to me!).

Many, many offices of all kinds of companies, including all sorts of blue chip, FTSE 100, leading law firms etc allow people to eat at their desks, as well as much smaller companies. To suggest they don't is, frankly, laughable. (Though if you've not worked in such companies I suppose not knowing this is feasible, but to declare that it doesn't happen without direct knowledge is pretty daft.)

@SunShades' posts are just ridiculous, hence why they're ridiculed. Senior management at her place are micro-managing control freaks on power trips judging by her posts (if it's even a real workplace, as I struggle to believe that anywhere could be that bad to work, and I've worked in some shit places in my time!).

i would assume the complaints came from what you were eating, rather than how often, fruit is messyand noisy (and oranges smell), so really should be eaten in the kitchen. cereal at the is also noisy.
at my job (and previous one), eating at desk is ok at lunchtime (as everybody eats at the same time, so noise is not a problem), otherwise soft granola bars or simple sandwiches (soft bread, cut bite sized, butter or jam so not smelly), pre-cut soft fruit with a fork are eaten at desk. fruit, veg, cereal etc standing in the kitchen - nobody wants to hear people crunching, slurping, and smell food all day. especially if you are pregnant, standing for 5 minutes is good for you!

I worked in a nursery and hid crackers in my pockets, I would have thrown up if I didn't eat. I would say I have to eat can I take more breaks and eat in the kitchen?

Is SunShade the one who works in the office where they get locked in at 9:00am and let out again at 5:05pm? And if there is an emergency they need to email their boss and it can be a couple of hours before it's approved?

Yeah well, all sorts of people say all sorts of things don't they?
Still room for a chair.

Ah melons, so you're assuming these people would be wrong? Another one on the list of things you've decided based on absolutely nothing.

The fact remains that you have no idea whether the kitchen is an appropriate and safe solution or not, despite claiming you did. There would need not only to be room for a chair but also for OP to sit on it, and it would need not to block any fire escapes. You were and are therefore making assumptions that cannot be backed up with anything OP has said. You do not know.

Also I think RoseWhiteTips is Hyacinth Bucket.

That's the one, Sharron!

Does she also work in a school that excludes pupils illegally but miraculously has written policies that are immune to judicial review, or am I thinking of a different one?

She denies it, GameOfMinges, so of course we believe her. It's just pure coincidence that there's a SunnyShades who is in senior management in a school which has very similar attitudes to the law as SunShades' employer; and that SunnyShades also has uncannily similar attitudes to school uniform.

The sound of other people eating cereal makes me heave

I'm the same. The clunky sound of the spoon hitting the bowl makes me want to scratch my eyes out.

But I accept this is my weird problem entirely, and my right to not hear it doesn't trump someone else's right to eat . YANBU

I think you're all being harsh, SunShades could easily work in a real office. In Colditz.

@GunpowderGelatine oh god yeah, the spoon hitting the bowl. My housemate in the room right next to mine leaves her door open so I constantly have to listen to her attacking the bowl with her cutlery. It sounds like she's learning how to ring the fucking church bells. Drives me insane.

Issue may be food being consumed at different times from breaks in other's presence. If an allowance can be made for your heartburn problem you should eat in kitchen. Do you need a chair for a quick snack? Standing may actually help your digestion. Not all work places allow eating at desks with computers. I worked in an office where they would go ballistic at the thought. Liquid of any kind banned for obvious reasons and food for hygiene reasons, crumbs, grease on keyboard and screens. Water from a water cooler where you stood to drink, eating, we had to leave office.

This is going back twenty years now but when the young male nincompoop sitting next to me complained that I was doing similarly, I went without my small, healthy, quiet, non odorous but admittedly fairly continuous snacks for about an hour. When he returned to his seat after his umpteenth cigarette break of the day, I got up and unfortunately didn't quite make it as far as the back door to throw up, only as far as his desk.

He didn't complain so much about anything after that.

The sound of other people eating cereal makes me heave

Without wishing to appear contrary is it really true that you heave when you hear someone eating cereal?

I can’t say I ever heard anyone eating their cereal so I’m wondering why it would make someone feel physically sick to the point of heaving.