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?

A lot of places, you don't even have your own desk, you hot desk, much less have a kitchen to eat in.

Yup.

Is that why your employer would frown then, there's an unwritten rule that you (but apparently not apple and crisp hater lady) aren't allowed a proper lunch break?

We're all allowed a lunch break but work pressures dictate that we rarely take one. This is my own dilemma and something I need to grow a pair for in order to just take the damn lunch I'm entitled to.

My colleague's work pressures are not the same - hence she can have a lunch without coming back to a mailbox full of unanswered emails and actions.
But that's a different thread for a different day.

Do you think you were beaten to death with an orange in a past life?

That’s a jolly thought Gigglebrain - ooh, maybe I was Nell Gwyn?

Justchill I have the solution! Apple/crisp consumption in one of these....

I wouldn't eat crisps in the office because it's very loud and greasy (to touching communal things). Sometimes they smell too, ugh. I would get distracted by that. Crisps are for break time.
Apples are fine imo. Bananas no, because the scent makes me feel nauseous. If it were for the duration of the banana eating alone - fine I'll put up and shut up. But the skin in the bin nearby is a constant so I personally think they should be a no, but I've never said anything even though I've spent entire days feeling sick.
I think the general rule should be nothing that smells too strong and nothing loud. There's nothing you can do about the colleague - that's her issue, I'm afraid.

I dislike people eating at their desks in our offices. That said, she could use headphones and listen to Mozart rather than Pink Ladies.

God I must be the worst of the worst, I eat noisy crisps a lot (addicted) and sometimes noisy crunchy veggies but convince myself it's minimal. At the same time I reckon I have misophonia - not as bad as I used to but god if anyone slurps or opens their mouth whilst eating or being particularly noisy even worse if it has a wet/salvia thing going on I'm ready to wretch!

GreatWesternValkyrie Brilliant!

I'm pregnant and very busy, so will continue to munch apples and crisps at my desk despite reading here that I'm a monster for doing so. 😂

That said, I work in a busy and noisy department full of grown-ups who just get on with their work while ignoring slight inconveniences. If someone else is being particularly noisy, I just whip out my noise-cancelling headphones and blast heavy metal and get on with my work. No big deal. At the moment the office above is having extensive renovations and the drilling has been going on all week - more annoying than an apple but there's nothing we can do so we just get on with it.

Annoying sounds are 1000x preferable to bad smells which linger for hours IMO.

I personally wouldn’t have gossiped about other colleagues with her, and eaten normally.

Cherries101 It's interesting how you took away from the post that I gossip about colleagues.

The reason I posted here is to avoid just that and get some honest, outsiders perspectives.
I've found the responses incredibly interesting, eye-opening and mostly helpful. I think it's great to be able to see perspectives from others' points of view. Some things have been said which I'd not considered and that's great. Not sure about others but that's kinda why I'm here.

P.S. Apologies to the apostrophe-police! outsiders'

We can’t eat anything louder than a marshmallow at our desks.

Can you eat your apple with a knife? My mum has this issue quite badly and doesnt mind this so much, it's the biting into it that bothers her.

Growing up with my mum has made me very conscious of my eating noises. I don't think I'd eat crisps in the office and that's probably because of the noise it makes. Though greasy fingers would be a problem too, and the smell... ready salted, fine, cheese and onion or smoky bacon, maybe not.

I think as long as you're not constantly munching all day and greasing up the keyboards, don't worry about it. A packet of pom bears with your lunch is pretty standard - it's not like having a colleague who is scared of spiders and bringing in your pet tarantula. Seeing massive spiders in your everyday life is quite rare and the risk can be reduced further by not going to places you know have big spiders, but you'll hear people eating every day unless you live in complete isolation and it's reasonable to expect to hear it at work.

I genuinely find it interesting that people turn their nose up at eating at desks only because I work in an industry that in the lower echelons so to speak we literally eat on the run (really not exaggerating...ypu figure out fast that a sandwich can be eating pelting along a high street late for an appointment whereas a salad has no hope...yes I have tried ) so having a set desk you can eat at is the goal frnajlu and a sign of seniority

A lunch break where it is acceptable to take the full break belongs to admin and senior leadership team only

A break room? You have bob hope....we have a kitchen...that if you enter with an opposite sex colleague and try to make coffee frankly it would be impossible not to make the kind of contact that results in harassment accusations (Disclaimer not making light of real sexual harassment there )

Op I do think a quiet agreement with your colleague is in order...possibly pre planned so she can leave the vicinity?I do think you should have the freedom of crunchiness but I do get her discomfort and you are really lovely for being so considerate

But I am rather agog...im all for people taking time to eat but it just is very hard to do in my line of work

I try to be considerate if I do happen to have noisy food. I dice apples so the pieces fit in my mouth all in one go, so no biting or slurping. I tend to wait until she's at lunch to eat crisps or carrots but sometimes I just wonder whether I should be having to do this at all. If it were me in her position, I think I'd just get headphones and get on with it.

(Apologies if that sounds totally self-righteous. It's not how it's intended!)

I do really like the idea of crunch hour.

Ironically, we are also having extensive work done in the building above us. Been going on for several weeks and is sometimes so loud we literally can't talk to clients on the phone.

Apparently this is less annoying than crunching.

Are you working a full day and not getting your unpaid yet necessary breaks?! That means you are earning less pa than you have on contract by a LOT. Honey, you are entitled and protected under Employment Law. I'd bloody take them. If they can't meet their targets without breaking the law then they need to hire more staff or lower their targets - that isn't your problem. They have no recourse, but you do.

@SlippedMyIdiom - Lunchbreaks are not a right. By law a full time employee is only entitled to a 20 min paid or unpaid ‘rest break’ per day. There are weekend and working day rights too (i.e. 2 days off in a row once a fortnight and no less than 11 hours between shifts). Most employers would argue, quite rightly, that for employees based in offices who eat their lunches at their desk they are effectively having their break because nobody is productive while eating. This is why a lot of overseas offices ban eating at desks.

I have misophonia and I use headphones to blot out the noise because it makes me REALLY angry and stressed.

As a general point though (and OP, you sound really considerate, so this isn’t aimed at you) aside from anything else, it’s bad manners to eat noisily, slurp food, chew with your mouth open and talk with your mouth full. Quite aside from any misophonia issues, people need better manners and more consideration of those around them.

@BrightYellowDaffodil - it’s only bad manners to eat that way for some western european cultures. If you’re in a cosmopolitan environment like London, which is a melting pot of different cultures and colleagues over from other countries often for days at a time, calling out what you perceive as bad manners is a stupid thing to do and could get you called up on prejudice. In a lot if countries it’s considered rude not to talk while you eat!

All agree a time period when you eat such food, so the person concerned is affected as little as possible.

Regardless of what is done in other countries, what I’ve described above is what’s done HERE. Or would you be the sort of person to go to another culture, do something perceived as rude and say “Well that’s whats done in the West”?

Manners are about consideration for other people.