Colleague making me feel physically sick?

[BurnMeDown]

Every morning colleague gets a big cooked breakfast to eat at her desk (next to me) and as soon as she sits down she turns the desk fan on.

So literally the smell of the breakfast is being blasted into my face. It makes me gag.

I darent say anything as she’s so ridiculously sensitive.

Am I acting like a princess?

Why is the fan on?!

If she is eating a full cooked breakfast she isn't working so why is she getting paid to sit and eat breakfast?

You seem overly sensitive to food smells. A cooked breakfast makes you gag...you describe the smell of fish as absolutely rancid.
I can’t say as these things bother me and i think you sound rather dramatic.

"Is she huge? Eating a fry-up every day and having a desk job... she must be massive."

🙄

2 options: 1 - for the brave: tell her. "Please don't eat it at your desk. It makes me ill"
2 - for the normal. Go to her line manager. Sadly, it's the managers job to break such issues to some very weird people. Who still don't listen.

Why not ask her to point the fan in another direction? She couldn't take offence at that. Could she?

Would turning off the fan make things tolerable? Seems like fan is the problem not the food.

So if you walk into a cafe before lunchtime, for a coffee say...do you start gagging and retching while ordering it owing to the smell of cooked breakfast foods?

You seem overly sensitive to food smells. A cooked breakfast makes you gag...you describe the smell of fish as absolutely rancid.
I can’t say as these things bother me and i think you sound rather dramatic.

No it was an abnormal smell of fish, it was ridiculously overpowering and others were complaining about it too.

And no it isn’t particularly pleasant having the smell of a cooked breakfast being blown directly on to you for 5/10 minutes straight.

So if you walk into a cafe before lunchtime, for a coffee say...do you start gagging and retching while ordering it owing to the smell of cooked breakfast foods?

How is that remotely the same as what OP described?

Omg exchange she for he and a cooked breakfast for a subway and that is my colleague. Thank god I’m on mat leave

He has a fan on all year round it is mad

So if you walk into a cafe before lunchtime, for a coffee say...do you start gagging and retching while ordering it owing to the smell of cooked breakfast foods?

Obviously I don’t . But it’s quite different having the smell of it blown onto you in close proximity.

Why does she turn the fan on when she’s eating the breakfast. Is the fan to cool the sausages or something ?
Mind boggles at how inconsiderate some people can be.

Ok. I think you’re creating over nothing...but ok.

OP, just ask your line manager to ask her/tell her to eat her meals in the canteen or the designated area.
I wouldn't be able to handle it either,in the offices I've worked theres always been one or two people that ate stinking food. The foods ranged from a crab, to roll mop herrings, fish and chips and really garlicky things.
These people are just totally ignorant.

Where is she getting the fry up from? If you have a canteen on the premises they should be providing some sort of seating?

pictish you seem slightly overinvested in my thread if you really think I’m creating something over nothing.

Why does she turn the fan on when she’s eating the breakfast. Is the fan to cool the sausages or something ?

Well, she’s always quite hot and out of breath when she comes upstairs from getting her breakfast so I think it’s to cool her down.

You’re entitled to sit at your desk in a work environment without someone guzzling a builder’s breakfast next to you, pictish
People can choose whether to eat in a cafe or not.

I'm finding all the opinions on this thread interesting.

I work in a large office, over 2000 people, and about 75% get take away from the canteen and eat at their desks. Including breakfasts, curry, pizza, fish and chips. Managers all do it too.

The canteen is a crowded madhouse, so a lot of people prefer to eat at their desks.

I've never heard anyone complaining but I wonder if some people do.

I’m offering my opinion on the public forum you have sought opinions on?
I think by ‘overinvested’ you simply mean ‘you don’t agree with me and I don’t like it’.

If you don’t want opinions don’t ask for them.

YANBU

yanbu it's gross and unprofessional
just tell her for god's sake
or actually puke

My work environment has no provision for lunch at all so people bring their own and often eat beside colleagues. It can be anything from a Pot Noodle to last night’s fish curry leftovers. No one whines about anyone else’s food and what it smells like. We all just get along with it with zero fuss.