To eat apples and crisps at work?

[Justchillalready]

Not at the same time, of course! (Now I'm wondering what that might taste like!)

I sit in an open plan office. One of my colleagues has misophonia, so really hates the sound of chewing/crunching. I realise this is not something she can control and is not just her being ridiculous. We've worked together for about 4 years and for 4 years I've tried to eat crunchy/noisy food as quietly and discreetly as possible.

If someone else in the office eats said noisy food, she emails/texts me complaining how much it's irritating her. Very funny initially...

Thing is... I'm getting a little bored of it and to be honest, sucking crisps to reduce the crunch just isn't quite the same as actually, well..... eating them.

While I'm certainly not saying I'm going all out and having a packet of crisps every day, crunching away without thought to anyone else, on the odd occassion that I do fancy a pack of crisps or an apple, I just don't really fancy having to eat by stealth anymore.

AIBU to occasionally simply enjoy the food in all it's crunchy glory?

I must admit, I go to the staff common area to eat an apple or anything else like that - I want to enjoy crunching away and would feel self conscious inflicting my noisy enjoyment of my apple on the colleagues!

Not really relevant but my DH insists of scraping every last minute scrape of yoghurt/mousse out of the plastic pot. Literally, about 30 scrapes of the pot. Every. Single. Time. He eats one of these most nights after our evening meal, in front of the TV, sitting next to me on sofa. He gets the evil look from me when I can''t take the scraping noise any longer. I'd rather he eat two yoghurts and leave a tiny portion of each inside the bottom of the pot. GRRRRRRRR!

There is a tribunal case on this relating to a worker who could not eat publicly as it would trigger a panic attack. Their condition was formally diagnosed and the employer had to provide - at their cost - a discrete place where they could eat undisturbed. This is not the same condition, but suggests where there is a genuine issue the onus is on the employer and not the workers to resolve the issue. It would therefore make sense for the employer to allot space where food and drink could be consumed. There is no right as far as I am aware to eat and drink at work desks.

if your desk is the only place you can get YANBU
however if you have a staffroom etc to eat in then go there

however it would be a tad unreasonable of the sufferer to go to staff room at lunchtime and complain about eating noises

The crunch of an apple makes me want to run away
www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-46193709

Don’t drag eating the apple out for 30 mins like my bloody colleague does, sucking and crunching away till there’s a tiny nun of core left and then sucking on her fingers!

I'd have to run away if someone did this near me. I'd see red!

Eat what you want. Just not all day (which obviously you are not proposing). You're clearly as courteous as you can be but i think it is equally her responsibility to manage her condition as much as she can as it is for you guys to accomodate it. ie earplugs when people are eating crunch food and an acceptance that crunchy food be eaten at certain points. Could you do a "crunch hour" where it's allowed and she wears earplugs?
I don't have the condition but have a colleague whom I sit near who eats fruit allll day. Allll day. Very noisily and it drives me bananas. It is like sitting next to the Hungry fucking Caterpillar.

Not food related, but there is a colleague at work who has really long fingernails (which freak me out) but when she's typing, all you can hear is tick tick tick tick tick tick tic-tic-tic and it makes me want to vomit as it's reminding me constantly of her fingernails. eugh.

So I don't have the phobia of eating noises, but I can understand it. For that reason I would say to try to be considerate.

UGGH How disgusting to be chomping down on 'snacks' at your desk, why do you need to do this? Do you not have a lunch break or breaks? Do your workplace mind?

YABU I would fine this intensely irritating and I do not have misophonia.

WendyCope as stated above not every workplace has a break room/ other place to eat.

I have misophonia and it induces a fight or flight response in me. So I either feel crazily angry, or I have to run away from the noise.

I would say it is up to your manager to resolve this. Either you do not eat at your desk (it's pretty grim to be honest) or they make a Reasonable Adjustment under the 2010 Equality Act to say she can leave her desk whilst you/other people eat.

I don't have this issue at work as people are not permitted to eat at their desks.

I don't have any medical issue but would find it irritating if people were munching on loud foods around me when I was trying to work. If I have a snack at my desk I just choose something quiet. Couldn't you just eat a banana and save your apple for after work (or eat it in the staff room if there is one)?

People who eat apples in public should be put in stocks.

overagain the OP did not state she had nowhere else to eat. That would be fairly unusual. Everyone gets a lunchbreak.

The constant need for snaking is crazy. IMO

People eating loudly is rank

Some people don't have anywhere to go to eat their lunch, I work in construction and we don't have a choice where we eat - you eat at your desk or not at all

Perhaps it would make more sense for the employer to provide space where the employee with misophonia can go when someone in the office wants munch on an apple, and a tablet so she can continue to work. Maybe they could go the whole hog and simply provide her with a discrete office so she's never disturbed by noise and everyone else can just get on with normal office life.

YANBU. If you're just eating them, it's not 'chomping'.

WendyCope, yeah, I love a bit of snaking and indulge as often as I can

Gees, Wendy, some people with certain conditions can't go too long without eating due to their blood sugar, but it's all about you, isn't it? Eat the apple and crisps, OP. I wouldn't think twice about this.

It wouldn't be at all unusual to have nowhere to eat other than your desk. Lots of workplaces either have no separate space to eat full stop or one that's not big enough for everyone to get a chance to eat in there unless it's done in shifts over several hours. There are always posters surprised to hear that on these threads though!

I do agree it's important information the OP should provide though, precisely because not having anywhere separate to eat is common enough to mean it needs clarifying.

Lastly, misophonia's not a protected characteristic is it?

"Oh my god just eat your company!"

I doubt she's that hungry!.

Lastly, misophonia's not a protected characteristic is it?

Would depend on whether it meets the criteria for a disability. Not all conditions will be classified as a disability, it is very dependent on their impact on the diagnosed person.

I have misophonia and it induces a fight or flight response in me. So I either feel crazily angry, or I have to run away from the noise

That’s really interesting happypoobum, I have that reaction to one specific thing that I’ve always thought was truly bizarre, the smell of oranges being peeled. As soon as the first waft of it hits me, I start to feel irrationally angry and then have to get up and move away from it.

I’ve never come across anyone else who (admits to) this kind of feeling so maybe there’s a smells equivalent of misphonia and I’m not the weirdo I thought I was

Has the OP got a 'medical condition' as she didn't mention it?
Does the OP have nowhere else to eat?
Does the OP not leave her workplace at lunch?
Does anyone not 'chomp' an apple and crunch crisps?

Otherwise this is a useless thread.

I suspect none of the above personally.