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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Colleague making me feel physically sick?

163 replies

BurnMeDown · 06/09/2018 16:13

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?

OP posts:

Veterinari · 06/09/2018 17:27

Surely if she’s eating a fry up, she’s not working - fair enough to scarf a sandwich at your desk but you can't Work and eat a full meal. Just tell her to eat first rather than pretending to work and eat

cycleasy · 06/09/2018 17:27

Is she obese? Leave some slimming world magazines on her desk when she's not there.

cheesemongery · 06/09/2018 17:29

2 threads? 1 wanting to cook bacon and one complaining? Hmmm.

pictish · 06/09/2018 17:34

“Is she obese? Leave some slimming world magazines on her desk when she's not there.”

You sound like a nice person.

Fstar · 06/09/2018 17:37

YANBU someone in our office cooks bacon in the microwave every morning, gives me the boak and sticks the whole office out

SchadenfreudePersonified · 06/09/2018 17:40

TBH I think any strong smelling food is inappropriate to eat in a communal office area - the stink can last all day and isn't pleasant, and why should OP's clothes and hair have to reek of someone else's breakfast (I know she didn't say this, but it will linger on her.

Piffpaffpoff · 06/09/2018 17:42

Get your own fan and point it at her? She can’t complain, you’re doing what she’s doing.....

SecretWitch · 06/09/2018 17:56

Is there no consideration for other’s anymore? My old office ended up removing all cooking facilities as too many people were having strongly scented food that wafted through the clinic. We were a women’s reproductive health service, so had many pregnant clients. The odour of boiling eggs or Curry was too much for many sensitive stomachs.

Op, if feel unable to have a conversation with your sensitive colleague, best to have a word with management. You should not have to cope with this on a daily basis.

Nanny0gg · 06/09/2018 18:02

Why on earth don't you just ask her to stop?

missyB1 · 06/09/2018 18:07

sensitive soul or not I would have to say something. "Sorry I'm not trying to be difficult but the combination of your cooked brekkie and the fan being on makes me feel ill to the point that I can't concentrate"."

If she has a tantrum or refuses to compromise then see her line manager.

howrudeforme · 06/09/2018 18:12

Well I have to wake at 5.30 to do my commute. I’m not eating then so take breakfast to work. Eat it while I log on. It’s just egg roll.

Work busy - I don’t leave my desk so I take packed lunch -usually previous night leftovers.

Colleagues can suck it up as far as I’m concerned as my job cannot be done within my contract hours so I’ll work overtime but they’ll have to deal with me eating at my desk.

No biggie (but I do this as I have to - I don’t choose to).

Nanny0gg · 06/09/2018 18:18

Colleagues can suck it up as far as I’m concerned as my job cannot be done within my contract hours so I’ll work overtime but they’ll have to deal with me eating at my desk.

What would you do if your company didn't permit eating at your desk? (many don't)

Original poster

BurnMeDown · 06/09/2018 18:22

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’.

Hahaaaa erm ... no. Disagree with me all you want.

I’m more referring to the amount of comments and time you’ve spent on a thread that’s apparently over nothing.

And the fact that your comments were hardly just disagreeing with me. More trying to dig me out to get a reaction. A reaction that you didn’t achieve over a topic that you deem to be “nothing”.

If I thought a topic posted on here was nothing then I wouldn’t have the interest or even desire to comment. Obviously you have nothing better to do with your time.

I will be disengaging with you from this point and you shall remain invisible to me as no doubt you’ll continue hanging around the thread .., just like the bad smell of my initial post.

OP posts:

wombatsears · 06/09/2018 18:30

Is she obese? Leave some slimming world magazines on her desk when she's not there.

Yes, become a nasty spiteful bastard because you lack the assertiveness to simply ask if you can turn the fan off while she's eating...

pictish · 06/09/2018 18:32

“You should not have to cope with this on a daily basis.”

Fucking hell. How soft are you? Do you have any idea what humans all over the planet ‘cope with’ on a daily basis? A fuckload more hardship than the smell of hash browns from across the office.

Not enough to worry about clearly.

pictish · 06/09/2018 18:33

Bit harsh but suit yourself. I think your colleague is not the only ‘sensitive’ person in the office.

HoleyCoMoley · 06/09/2018 18:35

Ask her, or get the manager to ask her, to turn the fan off or point it in another direction, failing that I'd suggest she sit somewhere else to eat. Is it a Mickey d breakfast.

eggstoast · 06/09/2018 18:36

I think I would have to go and busy myself elsewhere whilst someone was eating a cooked breakfast at the side of me, the smell and sound of someone snuffling a greasy fry up with make me want to throw up.

9amtrain · 06/09/2018 18:38

Throw up on her breakfast and then force her face into it.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 06/09/2018 18:39

Sometimes it’s the little things...
We all get irritated by trivial shit; millions having it harder doesn’t always soothe all our petty irks.

TomHardysNextWife · 06/09/2018 18:41

Take the fuse out the plug on her fan.

Simples.

CoughLaughFart · 06/09/2018 18:42

I’m sure my sense of smell is fine, but when I come on MN I start to wonder. It seems to be full of people who vomit if they’re even within walking distance of a reheated meal.

If lots of people eat at their desks and it’s not against policy, I doubt you can ask her to stop. It’s not unreasonable to ask her to turn the fan off though.

pictish · 06/09/2018 18:50

Like I say...my workplace (a school) doesn’t have any provision for lunch unless you want a school dinner. There are no shops within walking distance within our 20 minute lunch break. We ALL bring our own food from home and with a staff of 80+, lots of it smells. Curry, garlic, bacon, eggs, soup, onions, pot noodles...you name it, it gets heated and consumed.
We all manage not to gag and throw up. We are adults.

Rebecca36 · 06/09/2018 19:04

Tell her quietly that the food smell makes you feel sick. She'll stop doing it, maybe buy something else to eat that isn't smelly.

Thesearepearls · 06/09/2018 19:05

The only objection I have to people eating hot and smelly foods is that it invariably makes me want to eat it. It doesn't much matter if it's last night's reheated risotto (it's been known) or a protein pot from Pret or a bacon sandwich

Inconsiderate really.

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